Braintree sees more businesses adding mobile payments

Payments services provider Braintree has grown faster over the year since it was acquired by eBay, according to Braintree's general manager of mobile, Aunkur Arya.

Arya was in Sydney this week to meet clients and update them on Braintree's integration into the eBay group.

eBay acquired Braintree for US$800 million in October last year, saying it would operate as a division of PayPal but retain its brand. Braintree processes payments for online merchants and has been operating in Australia since 2012.

Arya said that, since the takeover, Braintree had the resources to bring products to market faster, and this had accelerated its growth.

He said mobile was the fastest growing part of Braintree's business, with a "ton of opportunity" in Australia. According to the company's research, only 54 per cent of Australian companies have a website and, of those, only 24 per cent have a mobile site.

Of those businesses that do have a website, 68 per cent don't allow people to make a purchase on the site.

"It's surprising to find that so many Australian businesses do not have a website, let alone a mobile site or a native app," Arya said.

He expects things to change. Sixty four per cent of businesses with a mobile site or app are planning to integrate purchases into their mobile service.