Zong founder takes helm of Paypal

Online payment giant Paypal has named entrepreneur and founder of Zong, David Marcus, as its president. Marcus had held the position of VP of mobile since the acquisition of Zong last year.

Marcus replaces Scott Thompson, who left Paypal to take the CEO role at Yahoo in January. Marcus will be responsible for the company’s day to day operations.

Zong was a pioneer in the carrier billing space, allowing users to make micropayments via their postpaid bill for virtual goods sold on social networking sites.

Last year the company processed $118bn in transactions, including $4bn over mobile. That number is set to top $7bn in 2012. Telecoms.com spoke to Paypal recently for our upcoming focus on mobile money and learned that the company is making a push into the POS environment via Big Retail as well as the occasional merchants with its Paypal Here offering.

There’s also the integration ongoing with parent eBay to influence the shopping experience. Paypal said a consumer could use their phone to take a picture of a fabric swatch then search for something in the same material and check prices, then buy the item and have it delivered or pick it up in store.