Paypal More Successful Than American Express and Discover Combined

January 11th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Paypal More Successful Than American Express and Discover CombinedOkay, so it’s official. Bank of America (NYSE BAC) to buy Countrywide (NYSE CFC) for $4 Billion in stock. Whoopdy-doo. (finger-in-air) I mean, seriously, hasn’t everyone written off the housing market by now?

What I find more interesting is the rumor of eBay (NASDAQ EBAY) getting bought out by Yahoo (NASDAQ YHOO) And what I find even funnier, is that the real value is PayPal. During their last earnings call, eBay claimed that consumer research found PayPal was the second most popular way to pay online in the U.S., right behind Visa. Now that’s pretty amazing.

You see, everyone knows that eBay, the marketplace, has pretty much grown to critical mass. There isn’t much more room for growth there. However, PayPal has unbelievable growth potential. The Virtual Credit Card is growing in popularity because consumers think it will protect them from identity theft (yeah right), the merchants using PayPal think they have Seller Protection (hahah yeah RIGHT), and the major credit card companies are shaking in their space boots.

The truth is, PayPal has just as much identity theft risk for consumers as anything else. And merchants who have accepted PayPal for a while, know that there is virtually NO seller protection. Funny thing is, PayPal is virtually the best option out there, and it provides virtual protection, which means it has virtually the most growth potential. I’m just concerned Yahoo will buy them and sink them in the ground like every other major purchase they make. Oh well, there goes the neighborhood.

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There Are 15 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by MayJay on 11 January 2008:

    Paypal still has its risks, but if we compare with other e-currencies, such as e-gold for example, paypal is still safer because of the chargeback thing :)

  2. Comment by Ih8paypal on 11 January 2008:

    Paypal is not the most safe around, I used to have an online store, and I agree that there is not seller protection at all, they treat us like crap, I’m gonna move to google checkout soon!

  3. Comment by Dnsos on 11 January 2008:

    Paypal/Ebay is a real big company, but I’d never think they are bigger than American Express, I mean, we don’t see paypal adverts on TV, do we? hehe

  4. Comment by JaniceW. on 11 January 2008:

    I always wondered how big paypal really was, and now I can see they are huge, but I also agree that they are not so safe, the seller protection does not always work, unfortunately.

  5. Comment by Phil on 12 January 2008:

    Paypal definetely isn’t secure, but it is the common standard for online retail. I am not surprised that it is second only to Visa though, especially considering that international users also use paypal.

  6. Comment by AlbertIon on 12 January 2008:

    that is true, even though paypal is not used on the whole world, it moves money from lots of countries, but I’d never think they are bigger than american express + discover!

  7. Comment by HeeLiX on 13 January 2008:

    I think Paypal is great.

    I am not suprised that Paypal is bigger than AMEX because there are so many online transactions compared to real life.

  8. Comment by Star on 13 January 2008:

    So true, we all know that there is more virtual money in the world than paper money, so PayPal being that big does not surprise me at all.

  9. Comment by Hank on 13 January 2008:

    Well, the virtual money thing is true, but even with that, I never thought paypal would be bigger than American Express and Discover, way to go PayPal! hehe

  10. Comment by Hank on 13 January 2008:

    You won’t get blamed for that, heads up for you for having courage, we all should be aware of these fake companies, thanks!

  11. Comment by Joe on 17 January 2008:

    Paypal also has more complaints with the BBB then Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover combined! They are the best!

  12. Comment by ladyfiesta on 24 January 2008:

    The only reason PayPal is doing good because they become the earliest adopter of paying for stuff online - and many people has subscribed with them. I agree that they might not be the safest way (I still think credit card is the safest way because of the protection given), but they are the easiest way to accept cc and to transfer money. Why? because not everyone has cc, so, they have use PayPal. And PayPal only needs you to login and click “confirm payment”. If you use CC, you have to fill in all those blanks (name, address, number, etc) which is kinda annoying and such a hassle.

  13. Comment by untikoplus on 26 January 2008:

    Interesting story… I didn’t know PayPal was the second most popular payment option in the U.S, even more popular than some credit cards.
    I agree, it’s the best online payment option out there, so far, it’s the only payment processor (of many I have tried) that hasn’t deducted money from my account without any reason.

  14. Comment by Octopus on 29 January 2008:

    PayPal has definitely made online business very easy and effective. Irrespective to their high charges, at least we can be safe about our funds. Only it needs to do now is increase the protection level higher because as members will be growing each year, they have to consider this as a main criteria.

  15. Comment by debt consolidation on 23 April 2008:

    I always wondered how big paypal really was, and now I can see they are huge, but I also agree that they are not so safe, the seller protection does not always work, unfortunately.

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