A few crumbs of data on the PayPal business in Australia emerged on Friday in the context of a public relations announcement about a smartphone attachment that will allow registered businesses to take payments on the spot. PayPal says it has 45,000 merchants making use of its existing, internet-only service for processing credit card payments. This is a lot smaller than the merchant base of any major bank in Australia but larger than that of regional banks. This merchant base appears to be 50 per cent larger than a year ago, given that PayPal said 15,000 merchants accepted their first PayPal transaction last year. It also has what it calls 250,000 casual sellers. PayPal also said that 1.3 million Australians have made a mobile payment using its service.