Buying by Paypal Text Message

silicon.com:

eBay-owned internet payments outfit PayPal has announced it is venturing into the world of mobile payments.

PayPal Mobile will launch in Canada, the UK and the US over the course of this month. Any PayPal user will be able to access the service once they’ve registered their mobile through their online account.

PayPal Mobile will allow users to send money to each other using their phones or directly to businesses. The service won’t internationally, according to a PayPal spokeswoman - for the text payment to go through, both buyer and seller must be in the same country.

The system will be based around short codes, the five digit numbers used for text voting, competitions or subscription-type applications.