PayPal Holdings

What does PayPal own?
PayPal owns a portfolio of digital payment brands: PayPal (digital wallet and online payments), Venmo (peer-to-peer payments), Braintree (enterprise merchant payments), Zettle (point-of-sale for small businesses), Xoom (international money transfers), and Honey (coupon and savings browser extension). The company serves consumers and merchants across more than 200 markets.

Is PayPal publicly traded?
Yes, PayPal Holdings, Inc. trades on NASDAQ under ticker symbol PYPL. The company has no controlling shareholder, with ownership distributed among institutional investors including Vanguard Group and BlackRock.

What is PayPal's annual revenue?
In FY2024, PayPal reported net revenues of approximately $31.8 billion, a 7% increase from FY2023. The company processed more than 26 billion transactions and approximately $1.7 trillion in total payment volume in FY2024.

Who founded PayPal?
PayPal was founded in 1998 through the merger of Confinity (founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin) and X.com (founded by Elon Musk). Other co-founders include Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Yu Pan. The company rebranded as PayPal in 2001 and was acquired by eBay in 2002 before being spun off as an independent company in 2015.

What is Venmo?
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payment app owned by PayPal that allows users to send and receive money from friends and family. Venmo is particularly popular among younger American consumers and has expanded into merchant payments. PayPal acquired Venmo as part of its 2013 acquisition of Braintree.

When did PayPal separate from eBay?
PayPal was spun off from eBay as an independent publicly traded company on July 20, 2015. eBay had acquired PayPal in 2002 for approximately $1.5 billion. The separation was driven by activist investor pressure and the strategic rationale that both companies would perform better as independent entities.

PayPal's origins trace to 1998, when Max Levchin and Peter Thiel co-founded Confinity, a company focused on security software for handheld devices. The company pivoted to digital payments, developing a service that allowed Palm Pilot users to beam money to each other. Separately, Elon Musk founded X.com in 1999 as an online financial services company.

Confinity and X.com merged in March 2000, with the combined company initially operating under the X.com name. Following internal debates about strategic direction, the company rebranded as PayPal in 2001, focusing on online payments rather than broader financial services. Peter Thiel served as CEO during this period, with Musk having been replaced as CEO before the rebranding.

PayPal went public in February 2002 in an IPO that raised approximately $61 million. The company's stock rose 55% on its first day of trading, reflecting strong investor interest in the emerging online payments market. Just months after the IPO, eBay acquired PayPal in October 2002 for approximately $1.5 billion in stock. The acquisition made strategic sense as PayPal had become the dominant payment method on eBay's marketplace, and the integration deepened PayPal's relationship with eBay's large merchant and buyer base.

During its years as an eBay subsidiary, PayPal grew substantially, expanding internationally and developing new payment products. The company acquired Venmo in 2013 through its acquisition of Braintree, a merchant payment platform, for approximately $800 million. Venmo, a peer-to-peer payment app popular among younger consumers, was included in the Braintree acquisition.

In 2015, eBay spun off PayPal as an independent publicly traded company, separating the two businesses to allow each to pursue its own strategic direction. The spin-off was driven by activist investor pressure, including from Carl Icahn, who argued that PayPal's growth was being constrained by its relationship with eBay. PayPal began trading as an independent company on NASDAQ under ticker PYPL on July 20, 2015.

Following the spin-off, PayPal pursued an aggressive acquisition and partnership strategy to expand its platform. The company acquired Xoom, an international money transfer service, in 2015 for approximately $890 million. PayPal also established partnerships with major credit card networks, banks, and technology companies to expand its acceptance and capabilities.

Dan Schulman served as CEO from 2014 to 2023, leading PayPal through its spin-off from eBay and its subsequent growth as an independent company. Alex Chriss became CEO in September 2023, succeeding Schulman. Chriss, who had previously led Intuit's small business division, focused on improving PayPal's branded checkout performance and transaction margin growth. In early 2025, PayPal announced that Chriss would be replaced as CEO by Enrique Lores, HP's CEO who also served as PayPal's board chair, effective March 1, 2025.