PayPal Access on the Fly

E-mail publishing solutions company Topica Inc. scored a partnership deal with
online payments outfit PayPal that allows for the creation of secure PayPal
“Buy It” buttons directly within things such as newsletters produced with
Topica’s applications.

Mountain View, Calif.-based PayPal said that small
businesses, non-profits, Web entrepreneurs and other users of the Topica
Email Publisher product can now create e-commerce buying opportunities on the
fly.

“Topica’s integration with PayPal — one of the first-ever between a
publishing platform and a payment platform — has removed the obstacles for
impulse and non-impulse buyers, and a sale is now only a mouse-click away,”
said Scott Olrich, senior vice president of corporate development for San
Francisco-based Topica.

As part of the partnership, PayPal said it would promote Topica Email
Publisher to its 16 million accounts as an additional avenue for increasing
sales. In exchange, Topica will promote the availability of PayPal’s
e-commerce functionality to its userbase of publishers. The ability to
integrate PayPal into email newsletters will also be offered to users of
Topica Exchange, Topica’s free community-based e-mail service.

“Many of our small business customers sell goods and services through
auctions and through their own Web storefronts,” said Peter Ashley, PayPal’s
director of business development. “We’re looking forward to introducing them
to Topica Email Publisher … to increase their sales through an additional
channel …”

Topica customers include IDG Communications; People magazine; CMP
Publications and the National Geographic Society. The company was founded in
1998 and is backed by investors including Morgan Stanley, TLCom Ltd., August
Capital and Highland Capital.