Enterprise
PayPal and Venmo will now accept cryptocurrencies
Good news for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum
PayPal has announced it’ll let users transact via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and more. Now users can buy, hold, and pay using cryptocurrencies on the online wallet and payments platform.
Using its leverage across tens of millions of merchants, PayPal can help bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies gain wider adoption as a viable payment method. PayPal has almost 350 million users worldwide along with 26 million merchants.
PayPal owned Venmo will also let users make peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions and a general rollout is scheduled for the first half of 2021. Following the announcement, the value of Bitcoin surged by 5 percent on the same day.
The company says it’ll initially support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Behind the scenes, Paxos will handle the trading as well as custody. For users, the biggest benefit will be they can store their cryptocurrency with PayPal and won’t have to go through real time exchange before each payment.
All cryptocurrencies will be first converted to fiat currency (like US$) at the time of settlement. Access to the service will be available in the coming weeks. However, users won’t be able to pay until early 2021.
PayPal isn’t the first major company to adopt crypto payments. Mobile payments provider Square as well as trading service Robinhood Markets already support cryptocurrencies. But PayPal’s reach is considered to be massive, having a ripple effect on the whole industry.
In the second quarter, PayPal processed payments worth a whopping US$ 222 billion. Hence it’s adoption of cryptocurrency goes a long way in supporting the niche industry.
Bitcoin and many other virtual currencies have been around for a long time, but exposure to retail customers for general payments has been close to zero. These currencies are extremely volatile, making them perfect for traders and short-term investors. Although their inherent benefits are yet to reach the average Joe.
With one of the world’s largest fintech institution opening doors for virtual coins, the future looks optimistic for increased adoption.
Read Also: Basics of cryptocurrency: Risks and benefits
Enterprise
Cebu Pacific becomes 1st SEA low-cost carrier with Starlink Wi-Fi
Rollout expected to begin in 2027
Cebu Pacific has introduced Starlink, making it the first low-cost airline in Southeast Asia to bring Wi-Fi in the sky for passengers.
The rollout is expected to begin in 2027. Starlink delivers an unparalleled broadband experience inflight, with high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi capable of HD streaming, online gaming, productivity and more.
Beyond enhancing the passenger experience, Starlink will also support improved operational connectivity for Cebu Pacific’s flight crews and operational teams. This enables better operational efficiency.
The collaboration is a significant milestone for Philippine aviation. The rollout forms part of Cebu Pacific’s continued investment in customer experience and digital innovation.
As part of the partnership, Cebu Pacific and Indigo Partners portfolio airlines, Wizz Air, and JetSMART expect to install Starlink on over 1,000 aircraft.
Enterprise
Google ordered to pay EUR 4.1 billion in fines
The EU alleges that Google uses its apps to establish an unfair dominance.
European fines have unintentionally become a normal part of doing business in the American technology space. For too long have American companies paid paltry fines to prevent harsher regulation in the European Union. Now, for the first time, Google is about to pay a record-breaking fine that goes beyond “paltry.”
Today, via CNBC, Google has been ordered to pay an astonishing EUR 4.1 billion (or approximately US$ 4.67 billion) in fines. The fine is in response to an anti-competition case.
This has been a long time coming for Google. The original case started in 2018. At the time, the European Union accused the brand of using anti-competitive practices to ensure its dominance in the smartphone market. According to the courts, the company’s bundling of first-party apps for every Android smartphone gives them an unfair advantage in the market and lessens the user’s choice in selecting apps.
For years, Google has fought the fine to seemingly no avail. Now, the company has lost its final attempt, which means that the fine still stands. On the bright side, they did get it reduced from the original EUR 4.34 billion fine.
The European Union is the scourge of every American tech company (and a godsend to consumers). Most notably, the continent’s government forced Apple to adopt USB-C, leading to a more universal experience across brands.
Google’s hefty fine aims to do the same. And it is quite hefty. Whereas previous fines were in the millions (and hence, negligible for most companies), a fine in the billions is more tangible.
Apps
foodpanda relaunches cult-favorite roast chicken brand after 8 years of persistent search queries
Heritage chain Andok’s returns to the platform, driven entirely by long-term user analytics.
In the world of e-commerce and food delivery, platform algorithms usually dictate what consumers see. But occasionally, consumer behavior is so relentless that it shapes the platform’s strategy.
In a move driven entirely by long-term user analytics, foodpanda has officially relaunched Andok’s, one of the Philippines’ most iconic heritage rotisserie chains, back onto its platform after an eight-year absence.
The search bar as a digital wishlist
The decision to ink the partnership wasn’t just a marketing play. It was a response to an ongoing data anomaly. Despite being offline from the foodpanda platform for eight years, Andok’s consistently ranked as one of the most-searched merchants on the app.
Year after year, users treated the empty search results page as an unofficial wishlist. This persistent search intent gave foodpanda a clear, data-backed signal of pent-up demand.
Prior to the official digital rollout, teaser campaigns on social media validated this demand, generating thousands of organic interactions from users anticipating the return.
Bridging heritage flavor with digital infrastructure
For foodpanda, onboarding a merchant with this level of built-in demand fits its broader strategy of marketplace optimization and hyper-local network expansion, turning a heritage brand into another data point for how legacy retail plugs into delivery infrastructure.
For Andok’s, the integration works as a fast track to digital scale. A legacy quick-service chain skips years of independent app development and reaches customers already using foodpanda’s existing logistics network, on a platform they already check daily.
Andok’s built its following on charcoal spit-roasted chicken, a slow-cooked technique that’s stayed largely unchanged since the brand’s early days, alongside seasoned grilled pork belly.
More recently, the Dokito line extended that following into crispy fried chicken and chicken burgers, broadening the brand’s appeal beyond its original rotisserie format and giving foodpanda a menu with both heritage pull and everyday fast-food convenience.
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