By LAURA LOREK
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

John Lunn, Senior Director with PayPal and Braintree Developer Relations

John Lunn, Senior Director with PayPal and Braintree Developer Relations

No matter what kind of wallet a customer wants to use, PayPal plans to support it.

“It’s exciting there are different people entering the industry,” said John Lunn, Senior Director, PayPal and Braintree Developer Relations. He spoke to Silicon Hills News at the PayPal Social Media Lounge Saturday, which the company is sponsoring for a second year in a row.

“People want to pay in different ways,” Lunn said. “Our philosophy has always been to allow people to pay the way they want to pay.”

For example, PayPal has enabled bitcoin checkout through a partnership with Coinbase and it will enable other wallets that are successful, Lunn said.

The mobile and online payments industry has become much more democratized, Lunn said. The world is moving to a cashless society, he said.

PayPal’s tools make it easy and affordable for a small business to compete with much larger retailers, Lunn said.

“There’s no reason why only the big retailers should have the latest technology,” Lunn said.

PayPal is also heavily promoting the benefits of mobile payments with its app for consumers to buy goods such as coffee hassle-free. Last September, the company introduced One Touch mobile payments, a single touch payment platform on iOS and Android phones. The One Touch system stores credit card information and allows consumers to easily check out with a click.

At the SXSW show, PayPal partnered with Lyft to offer discounts to riders who used its app. It also sponsored a special Lyft Magic Mode on an iPhone for a chance to get picked up in a Ferrari F430 Spider. 1963 Bentley, Tesla Model S or another special car. The promotion ran Friday through Sunday.

Jeffrey Malkoon and his mother Teresa Malkoon of PB Americano pitch Daymond John at PayPal's Startup Duel.

Jeffrey Malkoon and his mother Teresa Malkoon of PB Americano pitch Daymond John at PayPal’s Startup Duel.

And PayPal brought ABC’s Shark Tank’s Star Daymond John in Saturday afternoon to preside over a special PayPal Duel between two startups in the PayPal Social Media Lounge. Online voters selected the two finalists, PBAmericano, a specialty peanut butter maker and Earhoox, a clip that keeps earbuds on ears. Both startups pitched their companies to John.

In the end, John chose Jeff Becker and Helmut Wyzisk, owners of Earhoox as the winners of a $30,000 cash prize from PayPal and coaching support from John throughout 2015.