PayPal dangles $50,000 for Android developers

Android developers, perk your ears up: PayPal announced last Thursday, March 3, that it is now accepting Android app submissions for its PayPal X Developer Challenge. The contest would award cash prizes of $50,000 for innovative and secure Android mobile apps that leverage on PayPal technologies – such as Mobile Payments Library and Mobile Express Checkout – for mobile payments.

Three prizes are up for grabs, with a grand prize of USD25,000 of PayPal credit, second prize of USD15,000, and third prize of USD10,000. Furthermore, the top three applications would get marketing and PR support from PayPal to publicize their app.

PayPal, however, is vague on what they’re looking for in the winner: “We’re looking for something new, something surprising, something with business potential… make us say, “Wow!”, said the contest website.

While the last year’s contest also accepted applications for the Apple iOS platform, this year PayPal decided to focus solely on Google’s Android platform. “The tremendous growth of Google’s Android platform has brought about a huge pool of opportunities for developers,” said PayPal.

Past winners include iConcessionStand, which allows food, beverage and merchandise sold at live events to be ordered with the mobile app and paid for using PayPal, and AppBacker, which helps developers sell their iPhone apps to wholesale buyers.

The deadline for submission is on May 14, and winners would be announced on June 29. For more information on the competition, visit https://www.x.com/community/ppx/devchallenge

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