Paypal has been available for a few months in South Africa, and the uptake has been a bit slow so far in my experience. I would have thought that e-commerce websites in SA would have jumped at the chance to use Paypal. I do like the idea behind Paypal – never having to expose my credit card details online, and I always use it when I am given the choice.
Clearly FNB is trying to foster some development in this regard, and the prizes are quite big:
First National Bank (FNB) and PayPal today announced a new competition to award developers who create innovative applications using PayPal‘s payment platform.
The local winner of the FNB and PayPal X Award will receive a trip to the United States to attend PayPal‘s second annual Innovate Conference, which is taking place 26 and 27 October. The prize will include airfare, accommodation, meals, conference costs, visa expenses and insurance to an approximate value of $10,000. In addition, developers will also be automatically entered into PayPal‘s X Developer Challenge and could receive an award totalling up to $100,000 in prizes.
This year‘s PayPal X Innovate 2010 conference will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco. The conference will feature presentations from industry experts, new product announcements and sessions that will give developers the tools and support they need to create the future of payments.
“œThe first FNB and PayPal X Award seeks to reward South Africa‘s entrepreneurial spirit and jump start local innovation and new business ventures,“ said Chris Savides, General Manager, FNB Complementary Online Services.
PayPal opened its application programming interfaces (APIs) last year, giving developers around the world the ability to monetize their ideas and build new payment applications on new devices and development platforms.
“œPayPal has always stood for innovation in payments,“ said Oded Zehavi, regional director of PayPal Israel and South Africa. “œWe are excited to partner with FNB to encourage developers to build their dream apps and make payments safer and easier for people in South Africa.“
How to enter
To submit for the FNB and PayPal X Award, log on to x.com and click to register for the PayPal X Developer Challenge. Select the box for the FNB and PayPal X Award.
