PayPal India Extends Buyer Protection to Intangibles for International Transactions

Digital payments company PayPal on Thursday announced improved Buyer Protection for Indian users, now extended to intangible items for international transactions. The extended buyer protection will help mitigate the fear of uncertain delivery or 'Lost-O-Phobia', the top fear in the minds of Indian consumers, PayPal said.

Together with its risk management and unauthorised transaction policy, the extended Buyer Protection will let shoppers purchase physical and virtual goods and services with the same level of confidence as in-store purchases, the company said. Eligible 'intangibles' include services and digital goods like travel tickets, digital music, digital books, digital games, and software downloads.

"PayPal's Buyer Protection now includes almost all categories of good and services and guarantees secure online shopping, from checkout to delivery across borders for Indian buyers," said Vikram Narayan, Managing Director & Country Manager, PayPal India.

PayPal said that the market for digital goods continues to grow - citing the growth of the music industry's digital revenues globally to $6.85 billion (roughly Rs. 43,742 crores), surpassing physical format sales. A recent study predicts the Asian travel market will be worth US$155 billion (roughly Rs. 9,88,202 crores) by 2017, with currently 46 percent of travelers preferring to book hotels and flights online.

Following PayPal's separation from e-commerce major eBay, PayPal said that it will partner with its founder's competitors and is keen to expand in India.

PayPal has an active base of 169 million accounts, and processes 4 billion payments each year, 1 billion of which are made on mobile devices. The payments platform works in 203 markets, customers can withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 57 currencies. PayPal has a team of 1,300 in India, with offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai