PayPal to launch digital wallet in May

PayPal is readying its digital wallet for release in May, the company has announced. Some in the know say that PayPal’s new offering will be a competitor to Square's mobile payment device.

Sam Shrauger, vice president of global product and experience at PayPay, earlier this week presented PayPal's digital wallet at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin, Texas.

Many of the features on display have been known about for some time, including applications for letting people separate their purchase from their payment, switch from debit to credit cards post-transaction, build personal lists, collect coupons and set spending limits for particular consumables.

"It lets consumers do things with their money that have never been possible before," says Sam Shrauger, vice president, global product & experience, PayPal.

PayPal, has also invited reporters to a small-business event in San Francisco on Thursday. The company is expected to announce a competitor to Square, a credit-card reader that will reportedly charge slightly less than what Square charges, according to Bloomberg.

"This is what we'll be rolling out in May of this year to a lot of our consumer users," Shrauger said in a behind-the-scenes video of the new wallet.

In this two-part video Shrauger walks through his entire SXSW demo.