When Confinity and X.com merged in March 2000, a new era in payment processing was born.
PayPal was the result of that merger and, under the guidance of tech geniuses such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, the company soon became the largest online wallet in the world. PayPal remains the largest payment processor of its kind. Its 360+ million users send and receive over 35 million payments each day. In fact, during the second quarter of 2021 alone, PayPal processed over $310 billion dollars worth of payments. This level of growth has not only made it a trusted way to pay for goods and services, but also a major player in the tech space.
PayPal’s Interest in Pinterest Wanes but Opportunities Abound
Indeed, only this year it was rumored to be interested in Pinterest. The image sharing and social media site has 450+ million active monthly users, and PayPal wanted a piece of that action. It’s not clear what the takeover would have looked like. Indeed, as we learned in early November 2021, the deal isn’t happening. However, the assumption was that PayPal would become the default payment processor for Pinterest transactions. This would have been similar to the relationship PayPal had with eBay until 2020. It would have also been an extension of PayPal’s presence in various industries around the world.
Today, almost all online merchants accept PayPal payments. For example, gaming fans can go to Steam, tap the purchase option on a game, and choose PayPal as their payment processor. Sticking with the gaming industry, the best PayPal casino sites allow customers to make deposits and, most importantly, withdrawals. In an industry where cashout times matter, PayPal provides quick withdrawals that allow people to collect their winnings in hours rather than days. It’s a similar story if you move outside of gaming. Go to Booking.com and you can pay for a hotel via PayPal. Go to Qatar Airways or Emirates and you could be jetting off somewhere using money processed via PayPal.
PayPal Could Become a Player in the Metaverse
Whichever industry you focus on, PayPal is a player in the game. The rumored Pinterest takeover suggests that it doesn’t have any intention of slowing down. However, what’s more interesting is that it could signal a desire to facilitate social media payments. Using PayPal for microtransactions inside social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram could take PayPal in a new direction. In turn, it could lead the company into other evolving industries such as cryptocurrencies. Coinbase already accepts PayPal deposits, so this means it has tacit links to Bitcoin et al.
A move into social media would put PayPal at the heart of the emerging metaverse. It’s early days and the Pinterest deal isn’t happening right now. However, the fact PayPal and Pinterest were even mentioned in the same bracket is an interesting development. We know PayPal is one of the internet’s biggest success stories. We also know that it has a reputation for excellence across a wide variety of industries. We could now see it expand its financial ecosystem and become a driving force in the metaverse.