eBay Embraces Mobility

eBay's(EBAY Quote) PayPal is planning to launch a mobile payment service within the year, the auction giant announced on Friday afternoon.

The service would allow users to quickly make payments to vendors using their mobile phones or devices.

The new service will up eBay's ante in the rapidly growing mobile market. PayPal is the leading payment service online, and the ability to link online accounts with mobile accounts presents eBay with a big opportunity.

Online, PayPal also faces new competition from Google's(GOOG Quote) Checkout service, which the search giant rolled out in 2006 and has been promoting heavily.

News of the coming service was first reported on the popular tech blog GigaOm. eBay then confirmed the report.

eBay is among the Internet giants angling for the lucrative mobile market. Earlier this week, Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) announced that it had beefed up its mobile search offering. Google has also been very public in acknowledging the potential of the mobile Web.

Shares of eBay closed down 1.64% to $31.83.