Duff Research

It's always interesting when a small developer gets acquired by a large, well-known entity, but the decision by eBay's PayPal division to buy Duff Research drew particular interest from online observers for what it said about the mobile commerce industry.  Several developers and analysts interpreted the acquisition as a sign of how difficult it's becoming for even the largest technology companies to effectively crack the smartphone payment market.

PayPal is acquiring mobile software development startup Duff Research, a move to accelerate the rollout of its digital wallet efforts. Financial terms were not disclosed.

As the mobile app industry increases its reach into more and more global markets, developers are realizing the need to translate their apps into additional languages if they want to serve customers in multiple geographies. The use of a country's native language is culturally appropriate and it can improve overall sales.