Currently, everyone is glued to their smartphones.  Not just to keep in touch with others, but also to do things like online shopping.  Most of us have either our credit/debit cards or PayPal to use for our online shopping, but there are so many risks to this as there are so many bogus online shops, leaving your bank and credit card accounts very vulnerable.

Zong has already found a solution for this, through its mobile payments platform.  It lets you purchase anything with the use of your phone credits.  So there’s no risk for your other accounts.  And this innovation in online shopping has pushed eBbay to acquire the said company for $240 million.  Zong and PayPal are now joining forces to make your online shopping experience easier and more pleasurable.  eBay says that Zong will add ‘complementary technology and talent’ to its PayPal division, giving consumers more ways to pay for virtual goods and products online.

“Commerce is changing,” says Scott Thompson, president of PayPal. “With mobile phones, we walk around with a mall in our pockets. PayPal helps to make money work better for customers in this new commerce reality – no matter how they want to pay or what device they’re using…We believe that Zong will strengthen this value by helping us reach the more than 4 billion people who have mobile phones, giving them more choice and security when they pay.”

There has been a major boom in mobile payment schemes, and industry that it is already expected to reach $670 billion by 2015, up from $240 billion in 2011.  Boku, another company that lets you buy using your phone, has just announced that the one-tap payment will be enabled for Android devices in over 56 countries.   ProPay’s plan of merging social media and mobile payments is welcomed by small businesses because it allows them to transact in real-time, and eliminates the hassles of going to a bank or enrolling your accounts in bank services that takes a few days to be activated.

On a related note, Turkcell announced the launch of T20 smartphones that use Mastercard’s PayPass, which serves as a mobile wallet.  Visa is not far behind, with its payWave application working towards the mobile wallet revolution.

Since everything is available from your connected device, it is only befitting that you can do transaction using your mobile credits.  It gives you a peace of mind that your account information is not in any risk of being used by others, especially with the escalating hacker attacks nowadays.