eBay Inc. has announced today that it has agreed to acquire Zong, a provider of payments through mobile carrier billing, for total consideration of approximately $240 million in cash. Zong offers localized, secure and easy-to-use payments capabilities for digital goods and services in 21 languages and 45 countries.
eBay expects that Zong will add complementary technology and talent that help strengthen PayPal’s leadership position in mobile payments and digital goods.
Zong allows consumers to easily pay for purchases from their mobile phones or computers through direct carrier billing. Consumers simply enter their mobile phone numbers. Then, in a matter of seconds, Zong verifies that number and clears the payment on the customer’s existing wireless service account.
With Zong, PayPal will have greater ability to offer consumers even more choices in how they want to pay – virtually anytime, anywhere. Both Zong and PayPal help to enable digital goods merchants to increase conversion, because they offer a faster, easier way for consumers to pay without leaving the merchant’s site.
PayPal expects to transact more than $3 billion in mobile payments in 2011. Currently, more than 8 million customers are making purchases on their mobile phones through PayPal, driving up to $10 million in mobile payments per day. PayPal offers Mobile Express Checkout for merchants, PayPal Mobile Payments Library for developers, PayPal payment apps for iPhone, Android, Nokia and Blackberry, and location-based shopping with Where.