PayPal launches partner program

Paypal today signalled its commitment to expand to verticals other than eBay and retail after the launch of its global partner program.

"Our next wave of growth is going to be in non-traditional markets, such as not-for-profits and government," said Glenn Lim, PayPal's general manager of global alliances and vertical markets.

"Really for us to continue the growth we need to establish a partner ecosystem. We have merchants, schools and local governments that rely on solution providers."

To qualify, partners must use PayPal as a key component of their e-commerce system to deliver online payments.

Partners will be divided into gold or platinum partner status and can receive financial incentives, which vary by tier.

According to PayPal, partner status and revenue-sharing opportunity is determined by the total volume of payments processed.

The higher the transaction volume, the greater the revenue, claimed PayPal.

The partner program also included additional marketing, product and educational resources and support, accessible through a partner portal.

"Our partners' success contributes to PayPal's success so we've launched this program to deliver more value to the partner community," said Lim.

"We want to reward partners while giving them more resources and incentives to grow their business on the back of the PayPal payments platform."

The US will launch its partner program in the next couple of months. A PayPal spokesperson said the US launched a partner program a few years back, but enhancements to it would be modelled on the Australian program.

Further, the Asia Pacific partner program will launch at the end of the year. The exact details are still being finalised in terms of partner tiers and benefits.

Meanwhile, PayPal hosted an Australian developer program for the local developer community this past week.

Australia is the first market outside of the US to roll-out the developer program.

It included free technical tools and resources via a dedicated developer portal, PayPal developer certification and a series of training seminars called Developer Days.