PayPal is now one of the biggest names in online business. It aims to offer users an easy and secure way to make and receive payments online, and is now a subsidiary of eBay, another giant in the online business. This simple idea of being able to handle financial matters securely over the internet is also a very powerful and innovative one, and has helped to make PayPal what it is today.

The entity now known as PayPal began in 1999 with two people named Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. They founded it under the name Confinity, with the idealistic vision of a borderless currency, free from any governmental control. Max Levchin handled the technical side of things, being a computer programmer specializing in encryption for handling secure transactions. He is the CTO of PayPal up to the present. Peter Thiel, on the other hand, is the CEO of PayPal, and handles the business end of matters.
The main advantage that PayPal has over its competitors is actually its popularity.

Yes, PayPal is fast and easy, but so are its competitors like Moneybookers and Google Checkout. In fact, Google Checkout may actually be simpler than PayPal, as its fine print is not as complicated. However, PayPal beats out Google Checkout in terms of features. PayPal can take payments through a user’s bank account, while Google Checkout at present only handles credit or debit card transactions.

And as technologies continue to advance across the board, most online finance companies are equalizing in terms of the features and services they can offer their clients. Moneybookers is gaining a small following of merchants, as it offers a reliable alternative service for those countries not yet covered by PayPal. Even though it is not as popular, it continues to satisfy its customers and perhaps with better marketing they can grow to be an actual rival.

But for now, PayPal is simply number one. Being owned by and used as the payment service for eBay is a major advantage, as it provides a huge amount of business. In addition, having been among the first (if not the first) online payment services, PayPal has had a long existence in the market. And during this time it has already built up its brand name and its reputation, translating to a customer base of more than a hundred million users worldwide.

PayPal is now accepted by all major credit cards, and in a lot of banks worldwide. Many companies and potential clients already have and use PayPal accounts, making it easier and more convenient to use the service. PayPal has now almost become the “no-brainer” choice when thinking of options for making and accepting payment online.

Its long history also means that PayPal has had time to deal with many issues in the past. This means that its methods have been tried and tested by time and millions of customers, and have been modified and improved accordingly. As compared with newer online payment services, the PayPal team would have more experience in dealing with any potential issues or problems.

Based on figures for the first quarter of 2007, with net revenues totaling to $439 million, an increase of over thirty percent from the figures reported a year previous. In terms of total payment volume or TPV, PayPal handled a whopping $4.38 billion in this quarter alone! In a year, then, PayPal would handle more than $10 billion in total turnover, and earn about $2 billion in net revenues!

PayPal does not in fact fundamentally change the way that online payment works. Their function is simply to add a layer of security between the parties involved. The information, both personal and financial, is not released to either party, and stay only with PayPal. This means that the transaction is made a lot more secure, for all parties involved. The buyer and the seller deal with PayPal, paying the appropriate transaction fees. In turn, PayPal deals with the appropriate network of banks and merchant services, depending on (for example) whether the payment is by credit card or check.

PayPal is a truly global company, being available in many different countries all over the world. PayPal offers its complete services to users from the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, China, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain. In addition, PayPal offers some services to a lot of other countries. In particular, sending money is possible to almost anywhere in the world, to hundreds of countries, using PayPal.

PayPal’s Head Office, following its acquisition by eBay in 2002, was transferred to Mountain View, California. But their corporate offices now reside with eBay’s, in San Jose, California. They also have an office in the UK to handle their arm there, PayPal UK, as well as their other European operations. In addition, they have offices located in Nebraska.

In general, they do not need to have offices in a country to be able to offer their services to that country. This is of course because their business is done online, and the Internet is available almost everywhere in the world nowadays. But offices at critical locations are crucial to maintain smooth working at a global level.

For instance, PayPal has announced its plans to establish offices in Luxembourg, to further bolster their European arm. This is because it has been awarded a bank license in that country, the first electronic bank license issued in Luxembourg. PayPal is following other eBay subsidiaries, Skype and eBay, to establish European operations based in Luxembourg.

With its long history and very wide customer base, PayPal is without a doubt still at the top of its field. Being trusted and used by millions and millions of buyers and sellers worldwide, PayPal makes it easy to be hold secure financial transactions online.