Co-founder of PayPal Max Levchin is on to the next big thing. He has just launched a new business called Affirm that will compete in the mobile payments business. Affirm’s goal is to help shoppers to complete online purchases more quickly and easily with smart phones and other mobile devices. Affirm wants to streamline the mobile checkout process online. They say that they have actually managed to bring the online buying process down to two taps on the smartphone screen.
For first time users there is a third step since users need to log into their Facebook accounts and accept the Affirm application. After that, Affirm explains that users will only need to tap the Affirm button on the participating merchant website and then confirm the order.
Affirm has explained that users have 30 days to pay for their purchases and they make their money by charging participating merchants a small fee.
Levchin certainly has quite a resume behind him. Having founded PayPal with Peter Thiel, he was the Chief Technology Officer there for four years before PayPal was acquired by eBay. He also designed and built PayPal’s online security and fraud-prevention systems which have both been leaders in the field.