In focus: our top mobile payment app, PayPal

This month, FinTech Magazine took a look at Swysteak’s list of the top 10 mobile payment apps in the world. Within a list which included AliPay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, it was no surprise to most of us to see PayPal featured.

“Topping the list is PayPal with a total of 254mn users during the third quarter of 2018, according to statista.com. Having been acquired by eBay in 2002, the service is considered a leader in the field of online payment apps with a number of retailers use PayPal as an in-store payment or digital wallet top-up method. Accepted in over 200 markets, PayPal provides the easiest and safest way to make payments online.”

 

While the epayment platform has been a household name for years now, with most of using it to transact quickly and securely with an array of merchants without much thought, here are a few things you might not have known about PayPal.

 

• In 2002, shortly before being acquired by eBay, PayPal debuted on the stock market and its IPO made $61mn.

 

• A notable face involved in PayPal’s early formation is none other than Tesla’s Elon Musk. His company, X.com, merged with Cofinity, which was the earliest iteration of PayPal.

 

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• In 2005, PayPal added extra security to its platform when it acquired VeriSign.

 

• In 2017, PayPal partnered with internet giant Baidu to allow Chinese mobile wallet users to pay PayPal’s various merchants.

 

• Venmo, the money transfer app taking the US by storm, is actually owned by PayPal – which acquired its then-parent company, Braintree, for $800mn in 2013. 

 

Check out the rest of the companies on our Top 10...