PayPal $PYPL is a U.S.-based digital payments company that allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money electronically, make purchases online, and accept payments without sharing financial details directly with merchants. It is headquartered in San Jose, California.
The company was founded in 1998 by a group that included Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, originally under the name Confinity. It merged with X $TWTR.com, an online bank co-founded by Elon Musk, in 2000, and the combined company took the PayPal name. eBay acquired PayPal in 2002, using it as the primary payment method for its marketplace. PayPal was spun off as an independent publicly traded company in 2015.
PayPal operates a two-sided network connecting consumers and merchants. On the consumer side, users link a bank account, debit card, or credit card to a PayPal account and can pay at checkout without entering card details on individual merchant sites. On the merchant side, businesses integrate PayPal's software to accept payments online or in person. The company also operates Venmo, a peer-to-peer payment app widely used in the U.S., and Braintree, a payment processing platform for large-scale online businesses.
Revenue comes primarily from transaction fees — a percentage of each payment processed. PayPal also earns income from currency conversion, interest on customer balances, and credit products offered through its platform.
The company is one of the largest payments processors in the world by transaction volume, operating in more than 200 markets and supporting payments in multiple currencies. It competes with Stripe,