Paypal predicts $3 billion mobile payments in 2011

Paypal has upped its mobile total payments volume (TPV) projection for 2011 to $3 billion (1.9 billion), the third update to the company's forecasts for this year.

An initial speculation of $1.5 billion was increased to $2 billion in February but the latest estimate doubles the original figure.

Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal Mobile, said on the company's blog the company is now seeing up to $10 million in mobile TPV per day up from $6 million in March this year.

"Mobile payments are growing at a rate we never could have imagined when we started processing them back in 2006," she said. "We're thrilled by this news."

The company cited recent Forrester Research data indicating the mobile commerce market could hit $6 billion in 2011 and reach $31 billion by 2016.

Part of this progress comes from an increase in the user base. Paypal said the total number of customers regularly using its mobile payment services had risen from six million to eight million.

Chambers claimed user trust was a big factor for the company's success in this area and reported merchants were seeing as much as a 30 per cent increase in sales on adoption of Paypal mobile payment technology.