Companies struggle to popularize mobile money

While Visa, phone companies and Google (which has its own payment initiative) duel over the secure element, eBay Inc.'s PayPal is wondering what all the fuss is about. The online payment network thinks NFC is a lot more trouble than it's worth. The company isn't afraid to say so at the wireless industry tradeshow.

"If you want to change something, you have to solve problems that people have in everyday life," said David Marcus, the president of PayPal. "It's not like everyone is thinking 'Oh, I wish someone came up with something better'" than paper money and credit cards.

PayPal is putting a lot of effort into making cellphones central to the way we shop, but is focusing on the shopping experience itself, rather than payments. The company's ideal vision for buying a cup of coffee: You pull out your phone on the way to the store, fire up PayPal's app to order your double-skim latte and pay for it in advance. When you arrive at the counter, the barista has your picture and your coffee, and gives it to you right away. Then you're out the door.

Thirty years ago, Marcus said, store clerks knew the people in their neighborhood and greeted them by name.

"We think with this technology, we could recreate that personal connection," he said. "We feel this is going to leapfrog the efforts of NFC."