PayPal Inc. Overview

PayPal Inc.

Introduction

Incorporated as PayPal Holdings, Inc in the year 2001, approximately 22 years ago, PayPal is a North American international corporation dealing with digital and virtual payment processing operations in major countries of the world allowing digital transfer of funds. It was originally founded 24 years ago under the name, Confinity which was however changed to X.com a year after its establishment. Paypal is recognized as one of the largest virtual payment processing companies leveling up with other key players in the industry such as Payoneer, and Skrill, amongst other companies in terms of its seamless and fast transaction processing methods, et cetera. The company since its inception has been evolving rapidly in the marketplace. For instance, research reveals that the company records revenue as high as $25.37 billion USD based on its sales in the year 2021.    

Key Facts & Statistics  

Founding Year: PayPal Inc was founded originally founded in December 1998 which is approximately 24 years ago. The company had however re-branded its name multiple times before resorting to the current name in use, PayPal.       

Industrial Ranking: According to a publication from Global Data, PayPal is the world’s biggest and most widely used virtual payment system with over $320 billion USD as its total payment value (TPV) processed in the first quarter of 2022. Also, the company is ranked in the 143rd position on Fortune 500 list. Ranked #45 on Forbes World’s Best Employers, and #123 on Forbes World’s Top-Female-Friendly Company in the year 2022 respectively. 

Company Type: A Public Corporation Company (PLC)      

Market Reach: According to Global Data, PayPal has a market capitalization of $83. 9 Billion USD, and according to Web Tribunal, the company’s current active user accounts are approximately 400 million in total.    

Industry Type: Virtual Payment, Financial Services & Technology   

Trading Type:  PayPal Holdings Inc is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market under the ticker symbol, PYPL. The company’s stock is a component of the NASDAQ, as well as the S&P 500 and 100 respectively.  

Workforce Strength: According to Forbes Magazine, PayPal Holdings Inc has a total number of 30, 900 employees in its workforce globally as of the year 2022.    

Official Website: www.paypal.com 

Historical Background 

The company’s establishment in the year 1998 as an entity to be referred to as Confinity was founded by a set of three business leaders in the persons of, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, as well as Luke Nosek. However, Confinity was previously founded with the aim of building and providing security software solutions to mobile devices, nonetheless, due to the fact that the company was unable to meet up in its operations as expected by the founded, it was quickly switched to become a virtual wallet focus business. And in the year succeeding its found year which was 1999, the company released its first-ever electronic payment system designed to allow users to receive, send and request end-to-end funds both regionally and internationally. 

In the year 2000, March, the company that was still under the name, Confinity was merged with another digital payment corporation under the name, x.com. The company which was founded by four individuals with Elon Musk amongst the co-founders had been established only a year prior to the merger. However, due to several disagreements among the founders with some supporting the idea to merge with Confinity and others opposing the idea, x.com witnessed a change in leadership as one of the founders left the company sequel to the disagreement. The merger however led to restructuring which was then reported that the two companies operate under one name, x.com.  

In the year 2001, x.com has again renamed to Paypal the decision which took place after Elon Musk had stepped down as the company’s CEO with Peter Thiel stepping up to replace him. However, upon the change of name, the company went public in the following year, 2002 with its first initial public offering (IPO) of $13 USD per share and recorded over $61 million USD in that period. 

However, on the 3rd of October 2003, following the company’s initial public offering, it was bought by a company under the name, eBay in a deal amounting to a total sum of $1. 5 billion USD. As a result of this deal, eBay set PayPal as a default payment method for its users which made PayPal compete with several other payment companies that are key players in the industry, including Yahoo’s PayDirect, Citibank’s c2it, and Google Checkout. Even Billpoint which was one of eBay’s brands operating in this niche was greatly challenged. 

In the year 2005, the company bought the VeriSign payment solution in a bid to avail users of additional security support. And in the year 2007, PayPal Holdings Inc made it known to the public that it would be partnering with MasterCard. The partnership deal between these two companies led to the release of PayPal Secure Card Service, a digital solution that lets clients make payments through websites that do not have PayPal as a means of payment. However, by the end of the year 2017, the company recorded a revenue amounting to a total sum of $1.8 billion.    

In the year 2008, the company bought a privately owned business dealing with digital risk tools under the name, Fraud Science in a deal amounting to a total sum of $169 million USD.  

In the month of November 2008, PayPal Holdings Inc bought a digital and virtual transactional credit firm under the name, Bill Me Later. And a couple of years after the acquisition, year 010, the company recorded over 100 active user accounts on its platform in more than 190 marketplaces with over 25 different currencies 

In the year 2011, PayPal Holdings Inc disclose to the public via press release that it would extend it business operations offline in a bid to enable users to have access to PayPal payment services while shopping in traditional stores.  

In the year 2012, PayPal Holdings Inc stepped into a partnership deal with a company under the name, Discover Card in a bid to allow payment using PayPal across all 7 million outlets which are under the management of Discover Card. By the end of the year 2012, the company accounted for a total sum of $145 billion USD as the TPV (total payment value) of the year. However, approximately 40% of the amount accounted for eBay’s income.  

In the year 2013, PayPal bought a company under the name, IronPearl founded in Palo Alto, California as well as a company in Chicago under the name, Braintree in a bid to expand its product level and improve its mobile services. 

On the 18th of July, 2015, following the announcement of eBay in 2014 to rip off PayPal from its subsidiary and allow it to operate as an independent company, PayPal’s public status was restored.  

In the year 2018, conceded to buy a  Sweden-based payment processing startup under the name, iZettle in a deal amounting to a total sum of $2.2 billion. The acquisition became the biggest purchase in the history of the company. 

On the 19th of May, 2019, the company entered into a partnership agreement with Instagram to further develop the company’s newly built feature tagged with the name, Checkout on Instagram.    

However, in the year 2020 after the restructuring made by eBay to spin off PayPal, the agreement between PayPal and eBay ended, as a result, PayPal Holdings Inc regained its absolute power as a corporation operating exclusively.          

Key Financials 

Revenue: $25. 37 Billion USD (2021)   

Net Income (Profit): $4.71 Billion USD (2021)   

Total Assets: $75. 80 Billion USD   (2021)   

Total Equity: $21.73 Billion USD  (2021)   

Operating Income: 4.26 Billion USD  (2021)   

Market Cap: $83.9 Billion USD (2021) 

Services 

In Person  Payment services 

Multiparty Payment Services 

3rd Party Payment Services 

Plans 

PayPal services are offered in two categories which include, PayPal Personal, and PayPal for Business. 

PayPal Personal  

Key features include: 

Pay online 

Send Money 

Get Paid 

Search for Deals 

PayPal Business 

Key Features include: 

Accept online payment 

Send invoices 

Monitor your payment status 

Account directory 

Top Companies/Stores Accepting PayPal Inc.’s Payment 

Walmart 

The Home Depot 

Dick’s Sporing Goods 

NIKE 

BEST BUY 

SONOS 

SHEIN 

Developer Tools & Resources 

Demo Portal 

API Executor 

Sandbox Testing Guide 

PayPal APIs & SDKs 

The following are PayPal offerings of APIs for new and legacy integration, and SDKs tailored for you to have a seamless integration process.  

APIs include: 

REST APIs 

NVP/SOAP APIs 

Braintree GraphQL API 

SDKs include: 

JavaScript SDK 

Donate SDK 

Braintree SDKs 

Conclusion 

Finally, judging from the company’s industry experience, one would have wondered how a company that only got started in 1998 has grown to become one of the world’s leading payment processing companies in the presence of strong competitors like Payoneer and Skrill, however, the secret to this is embedded in the company’s ability to leverage the experience over the years to build a strong formidable enterprise that stands the test of time.