PayPal-owned StackMob to shut down on May 11 so team can focus on mobile payment technology

We now know what PayPal is going to be doing with the StackMob team. In a blog post, co-founders Ty Amell and Will Palmeri announced that the platform-as-a-service company will be shutting down in order to “focus our team and resources on making PayPal the best global payments platform in the world.” The platform will cease to operate on May 11, 2014 and customers will be able to export their data until then.

StackMob was acquired by PayPal back in December 2013, but both companies refused to say what was going to happen to the StackMob. Obviously now we know what’s really going to happen. As the team notes in its post:

By closing the doors to StackMob, we will be able to focus 100% of our energy on extending innovation in mobile technologies that will let users access the rich capabilities of the PayPal global network. We truly believe our work at PayPal will make it easier for developers to create seamless payment solutions that span online, mobile, and in-store experiences. A daunting, but exciting challenge.

It’s a shame though. PayPal is in dire need of appealing to the developer community and as it seeks to create the next payment operating system, it will need to grow its ecosystem and that’s through additional integrations, something that many developers have complained is difficult to do. We may also see some elements of StackMob being ported over to PayPal’s new Braintree developer relations team, which was created last month.

However, with StackMob’s team joining PayPal, it could certainly help company CEO David Marcus’ vision about mobile. In January, Marcus said at a ReadWrite Mix event that “everything” will be based on mobile, including completing transactions through the use of biometrics. He thinks there will be a time when the wallets will be a thing of the past — so the hope is that StackMob will help in this area.

Users have until May 11 to export their data. StackMob has a tool help with the transition and you’ll receive it in a CSV format. After this time, all access to accounts will be terminated.

Photo credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images