Forget about cash and credit cards. There’s a new payment
alternative for buying CDs, DVDs and other such entertainment pleasures
– your cell phone.

Online payment specialist PayPal, a unit of
Internet auction giant eBay, has introduced PayPal Mobile to North
America. The wireless version of its service enables users to buy goods
and exchange money using their phones. Transactions are conducted by
secure text message.

Music heavyweights Universal Music Group and MTV already are supporting the technology.

UMG will use PayPal Mobile to sell CDs by the Pussycat Dolls,
Mary J. Blige and Daddy Yankee in direct-marketing initiatives. Rollout
is imminent. And MTV plans to use it to sell basic merchandise from its
Web store, including T-shirts and DVDs.

Other big-name media and
entertainment brands, including 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,
Bravo and the NBA Store, hope to drive similar impulse buys by offering
items for purchase via PayPal Mobile.

"With the overwhelming
popularity of mobile phones, the time has never been better for the
merging of e-commerce and wireless devices," PayPal president Jeff
Jordan says.

To be sure, the opportunity is huge. PayPal claims more than 100 million members.

In
addition to purchasing goods, PayPal members can send money to other
individuals as well as to participating charities and merchants. 

By Brian Garrity
Reuters.com