December 17, 1999

PayPal.com and Star Trek's 'Scotty' Put the Power to Beam Money in the Palm Of Your Hand

San Francisco Event Unveils PayPal.com's Palm Pilot Application and Other Strategic Developments

'Scotty' Beams a Surprise to Thousands

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- PayPal.com announced the release of the Palm Organizer version of its software today, that enables Palm users to instantaneously beam money with the click of a button. The Palm Pilot application joins PayPal.com's existing free online software in allowing users to instantly and securely send cash payments to anyone with an email address.

This one-two combination of PayPal.com for personal computers and handhelds creates a vast new network of electronic money terminals for consumers, letting individuals conduct person-to-person payments with ease.

In conjunction with the unveiling of its Palm software, PayPal.com also introduced James Doohan -- widely known for his role as "Scotty" on Star Trek™ -- as the company's official spokesman. "I've been beaming people up my whole career," Doohan quipped, "but this is the first time I've ever been able to beam money!" While remarking on PayPal.com's cutting-edge technology, Doohan also stressed how easy it is to use. Unlike other current online payment systems that require users to know the bank account numbers of their would-be recipients, PayPal.com users only need to supply an email address.

To commemorate the historic launch of PayPal.com's Palm Pilot application, Doohan beamed an early Christmas present to thousands of lucky Web users. With the touch of a button on his Palm Pilot, Doohan used PayPal.com to beam a total of one million dollars to countless individuals across the country. While his "Scotty" character may have explored the frontier of space, James Doohan and PayPal.com are heralding a new frontier of wireless, person-to-person payments.

"This new application literally means that consumers will be able to have the power of PayPal.com in the Palm of their hand," said Peter Thiel, the company's Chief Executive Officer. "With our free Palm Pilot software, our users will be able to instantly beam encrypted payments from anywhere -- a restaurant, a movie theater, or a ski lodge. And the recipient doesn't need to have a Palm Pilot or even an existing PayPal.com account, just an e-mail address."

In addition to announcing the launch of its Palm Pilot application, PayPal.com also unveiled several new features for its free online service. PayPal.com's online users will be able to use the service to coordinate group billing collections, to send payment requests to friends, and to conduct transactions for online auctions and classified advertisements.

PayPal.com's Palm Pilot and online applications are backed by state-of-the-art cryptography, making both platforms significantly more secure than checks or other paper-based payment methods, which can easily be counterfeited, forged, or stolen. With the aid of Dr. Martin Hellman, the inventor of public key cryptography, and Stanford computer science professor Dr. Dan Boneh, PayPal.com has created a robust and highly scalable backend architecture that protects PayPal.com's users and ensures their transactions are processed accurately and quickly.

PayPal.com, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is owned by Confinity Inc. It is the first Web-based payment service that enables consumers to beam money from the palm of their hand or the convenience of their personal computer to any e-mail user in the world. PayPal.com's business partners include Nokia Ventures and Deutsche Bank.