PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is one of the world’s largest and oldest fintech companies having gotten its start in 1998. Originally a payment processing application named Confinity, the company will join forces with eBay in 2000 and then merge with the company in 2002. In 2008 Bill Me Later joined the company and eventually became Paypal Credit, the company also launched mobile apps that year that made it even easier and more accessible to millions of consumers.
Together, eBay and Paypal will change the course of eCommerce forever but the match did not last forever. Paypal quickly outgrew its original specifications to become the financial behemoth it is today. Brands in the portfolio include the original Paypal which was spun off from eBay in July 2015 as well as Venmo, Xoom, and Paypal Credit.
Dan Shulman was tapped as CEO-designee in 2014 and worked with the company extensively during the build-up to the IPO. Since then, Mr. Shulman has worked diligently as CEO to democratize and transform digital payments for the benefit of individuals, families, and businesses worldwide.
Now, PayPal provides digital financial infrastructure, services, and support across a wide range of applications globally including but not limited to payments, wallet services, and credit. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and is built on the belief that everyone has the right to participate in the global digital economy. The company operates a portfolio of web-based applications that provide a host of other services as well.
Paypal provides payment solutions under the PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Zettle, Hyperwallet, Honey, and Paidy names. The company began working with cryptocurrency late in 2020 and now supports four currencies. Paypal users can access the cryptocurrency wallet through their accounts and buy, sell, and trade the top four currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The company's platforms allow consumers to send and receive payments in over 200 countries and in approximately 50 currencies, not including cryptocurrencies which the platform supports as well. Members can connect their accounts to a bank and withdraw to it or use a PayPal-branded debit card to access funds. Balances can also be carried on a short or long-term basis but the company does not pay interest.
In terms of scale, the company boasts more than 430,000,000 active accounts including merchants and consumers. In Q2 of 2022, that equated to 5.5 billion individual transactions and more than $340 billion in total payment volume. In regards to depth, the average account made more than 48 transactions or just over 4 transactions per week. In terms of market share, Paypal began the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 50% of the market share in global digital payments and that figure increased in its wake.
