PayPal is facing increasing competition in the online payments arena as other companies introduce payment services of their own. Nokia is the latest such entry, with the announcement of Nokia Money that will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions. Nokia invested in Obopay earlier this year, and the new service is based on Obopay's mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.
According to IDG News Service, MasterCard is also working with Obopay and plans to offer person-to-person money transfer via mobile phones with its MoneySend service in the U.S.
Earlier this week, Intuit launched the Intuit PaymentNetwork, a new online payment service that lets small businesses process payments for 50 cents with no other fees and allows users pay their bills online for free. The service works by transferring money from the sender's bank to the receiver's bank. Intuit also recently launched GoPayment for the App Store, a free download that in effect turns the iPhone or iPod touch into a credit card terminal.
eBay has been increasingly forcing sellers to accept its PayPal payment service on eBay.com and its international sites, and the marketplace bans sellers from accepting Google Checkout or Payments by Amazon.