“The first PayPal X Developer Challenge helped to dramatically jump start innovative ideas and new business models for mobile payments, e-commerce and services,” said Osama Bedier, vice president of PayPal's platform, mobile and new ventures. “This year, we’re giving developers even more financial incentive to build their dream apps and show everyone how they can change the way we pay.”
The first Developer Challenge launched at the PayPal X Innovate event in November 2009 and attracted hundreds of submissions, including the winners, Rentalic, a person-to-person rental marketplace, and appbackr, the first wholesale digital marketplace for iPhone applications.
“Winning the grand prize gave my business great momentum,” said Punsri Abeywickrem, Rentalic founder and CEO, whose application allows people to rent and share tools, books, gadgets and much more. “The prize was recognition from my peers in the PayPal developer community, as well as a panel of highly respected Silicon Valley executives, who saw the business value of neighbors reaching out to each other with goods to rent and share.”
$100,000 Grand Prize and New Awards
The grand prize winner of the PayPal X Developer Challenge will receive an award totaling up to $100,000, including $50,000 into the winner’s PayPal account and $50,000 in waived transaction fees.
New this year, PayPal and its partners are introducing “X Awards,” the People’s Choice Award and the Audience Award, which offer a unique opportunity for developers to win prizes and recognition for outstanding apps in various categories.
There are multiple X Awards with prizes up to $10,000, including:
- Best application built from the PayPal X Mobile Payments Library;
- Best application built by university students;
- Best consumer application;
- Best application for cross-border commerce;
- Best application built on the Yahoo! platform (provided by the Yahoo! Developer Network);
- Best application built on the eBay platform (provided by eBay).
In addition, the fast growing PayPal X community will have the opportunity to select the People’s Choice award winner by voting on x.com between Sept. 24, 2010, at 12:01 a.m. PDT and Oct. 5, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. PDT. The top finalists will be invited to exhibit at the PayPal X Innovate 2010 conference Oct. 26-27 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Finally, the Innovate 2010 Audience Award winner will be selected by attendees of the PayPal X Innovate conference by voting on Twitter.
How to Enter
To enter the PayPal X Developer Challenge, log on to x.com. Developers who register by Aug. 4 at 11:59 p.m. PDT will be entered to win one of 10 iPads. The use of some of PayPal's products requires approval for which a Sept. 1 deadline applies; please check x.com for detailed contest timelines and deadlines. Finalists and the grand prize winner will be determined by a panel of distinguished judges including Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital, Dave McClure of 500 Hats and Dana Stalder of Matrix Partners.
Winners will be announced at PayPal X Innovate 2010. For more information, visit the Innovate 2010 event site and follow us on Twitter @PayPalX. The Twitter hashtag for the PayPal X Developer Challenge is #XContest, and you can friend us at Facebook.com/paypalx.
About PayPal X
PayPal X is PayPal’s global online payments platform, a library of tools and APIs for facilitating payments and managing accounts. The platform is supported by the PayPal X Developer Network, which includes tools, documentation, news, blogs and discussions. More information can be found at x.com.
About PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 84 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay company and is made up of three leading online payment services: the PayPal global payment service, the Payflow Gateway and Bill Me Later. The company's open payment platform, PayPal X, allows developers to build innovative payment applications on multiple platforms and devices. More information about the company can be found at PayPal.com.
PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California and its international headquarters is located in Singapore.