Apple loses global payments executive to eBay's rumored PayPal replacement
It appears that eBay is stocking up on talent in preparation of an inevitable separation from PayPal, the latest hire being Bora Chung, a payments expert who served as Apple's worldwide payments for the Online Apple Store since 2010.
Apple executive Bora Chung (left) will reportedly join R.J. Pittman at eBay's Marketplace division.
According to SFGate, Chung was hired on to eBay's new Marketplace division by another former Apple executive, e-commerce boss R.J. Pittman. The move is thought to be related to an impending payments service set to launch once PayPal is spun off from the Internet auction giant later this year.
At Apple, Chung headed up worldwide payments and financing of the Online Apple Store, according to her LinkedIn profile that still lists Apple as a current employer. Prior to Apple, Chung worked at PayPal from 2007 to 2011, starting out as senior director of global platform operations before becoming senior director of branded payments.
Chung's pedigree in banking dates back to 1995 when she worked as an analyst at Merrill Lynch. She later took a position at Asia-centric venture capital firm Athena Technology Ventures.
While her official title at eBay is unknown, Chung will likely answer to Pittman, who led Apple's e-commerce activities and was responsible for the Personal Pickup program. He left the company on good terms in 2013, saying Apple is "a great company, but eBay is on a completely different level by an order of magnitude when it comes to e-commerce." The iPhone maker announced its Apple Pay mobile payments service less than a year later.
Apple Pay was first revealed during Apple's iPhone launch event last year and was subsequently activated in an iOS update pushed out a month later. Early market reactions have been positive, but the mobile payments industry is nowhere close to impinging on more traditional payments.
Details of eBay's PayPal replacement have not been learned, though rumors point to a solution that could in some respects rival Apple Pay, as well as other online payments services.
Apple executive Bora Chung (left) will reportedly join R.J. Pittman at eBay's Marketplace division.
According to SFGate, Chung was hired on to eBay's new Marketplace division by another former Apple executive, e-commerce boss R.J. Pittman. The move is thought to be related to an impending payments service set to launch once PayPal is spun off from the Internet auction giant later this year.
At Apple, Chung headed up worldwide payments and financing of the Online Apple Store, according to her LinkedIn profile that still lists Apple as a current employer. Prior to Apple, Chung worked at PayPal from 2007 to 2011, starting out as senior director of global platform operations before becoming senior director of branded payments.
Chung's pedigree in banking dates back to 1995 when she worked as an analyst at Merrill Lynch. She later took a position at Asia-centric venture capital firm Athena Technology Ventures.
While her official title at eBay is unknown, Chung will likely answer to Pittman, who led Apple's e-commerce activities and was responsible for the Personal Pickup program. He left the company on good terms in 2013, saying Apple is "a great company, but eBay is on a completely different level by an order of magnitude when it comes to e-commerce." The iPhone maker announced its Apple Pay mobile payments service less than a year later.
Apple Pay was first revealed during Apple's iPhone launch event last year and was subsequently activated in an iOS update pushed out a month later. Early market reactions have been positive, but the mobile payments industry is nowhere close to impinging on more traditional payments.
Details of eBay's PayPal replacement have not been learned, though rumors point to a solution that could in some respects rival Apple Pay, as well as other online payments services.
Comments
eBay SERIOUSLY needs a competitor to step up to the plate.
Why is eBay spinning off PayPal?
She's so shy, that's not even her head you see....
Activist Carl Icahn called for the eBay and PayPal to split last year. He said “PayPal’s a jewel and eBay is covering up its value". Basically how the sum of the parts would be worth more.
And then you have Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, say “It doesn’t make sense that a global payment system is a subsidiary of an auction website… It’s as if Target owned Visa or something.” PayPal “will get cut to pieces by Amazon payments or by other systems like Apple and by start-ups if it continues to be part of eBay… It will either wither or be spun out.” Keep in mind Elon Musk founded PayPal but sold it off more than a decade ago.
Why is eBay spinning off PayPal?
PayPal is a cash cow for eBay, but now that Apple Pay is released PayPal has a real competitor that can only grow.
So now its time to cash-in PayPal to unsuspecting investors before Apple Pay makes it worth much less.
Carl Icahn demanded eBay spin off PayPal. eBay said no, no, no. Then eBay said I can. The rest is now playing out.
The best photo they could find is her standing behind a rock or something?
Something about being between a rock and a hard place.
If she is energetic it is a good move for a challenge. At Apple it will just grow with the move she has an opportunity to create something that will be a bog challenge. Paypal is really the best company to create a payment system to compete with Apple since they have all those years of managing payments.
People look at Paypal today and an online payment system but not too long ago they did something that had never been done before and the rest is history.
I wish her well and that this challenges her. There is no real challenge coasting along with a company who is doing so well. SHe wil have to fight to make this happen so we will see in a few years what happens.
(one mans opinion)