Dive Brief:

• PayPal Thursday unveiled a software development kit (SDK) that works with its mobile payment system, allowing transactions from third-party credit-card readers as well as inventory tracking and invoicing.

• Alibaba, meanwhile, announced it will launch a biometric mobile security reader that it says is more secure than fingerprint security features of Samsung and Apple, which it notes have been hacked.

• The feature, part of Alibaba’s Alipay Wallet, is shipping with Huawei’s Mate 7 smartphone this week.

Dive Insight:

So far, fingerprint security technology has been a disappointing feature because it's hard to use in the real world — it's often slow and doesn’t always work on the first try. If Alibaba’s feature takes biometric phone security to the next level, it could help mobile payments catch on. Meanwhile, PayPal is moving to make its payment systems indispensable to retailers on many fronts.