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PayPal acquires Duff Research to develop digital wallet

As it continues to push for a mobile-first strategy and develop further its digital wallet, PayPal announced recently that has acquired Duff Research, a US-based full service mobile app developer.

James Barrese, CTO, PayPal, said in a blog post that with the acquisition, Duff Research’s team of engineers will be joining the PayPal technology team to help the company build creative and simple ways for our customers to use the PayPal digital wallet.

Duff Research has developed apps for some of the world’s leading brands and start-ups and its team has won four “Best of CES” awards and two technical Emmys.

A study released by comScore in February showed that digital wallets, which store a virtual copy of the contents of a consumer’s physical wallet to facilitate online or offline retail transactions, has not reached critical mass.

However, the same study finds that the digital wallet market opportunity could eventually reach 1 in 2 consumers as consumers become more aware of the offerings and educated on their benefits.

Of the respondents in the comScore survey who said they aware of the existence of digital wallets, majority (72 percent) reported that they are aware of PayPal’s digital wallet offering and 42 percent have actually used it.

PayPal unveiled its digital wallet at SXSW2012 in March last year, with Sam Shrauger, Vice President, Global Product & Experience, saying that it is not about replacing a card swipe with a phone tap at point of sale but about reimagining money to free it in its digital form so that it can work better for everyone.