PayPal

PayPal operates a multi-sided financial technology platform. On one side, it acquires and retains consumers through a wallet used for checkout, transfers and financial services. On the other, it provides merchants, platforms and developers with payment acceptance, payouts, invoicing and commerce infrastructure. This creates value by linking buyer trust, merchant acceptance and software integrations into a broad payments network. The company has also extended this network into advertising by monetising commerce intent and transaction data through ad products for brands and agencies.

PayPal is a US-listed payments and commerce platform operating across both consumer and business use cases. Its core business is processing digital payments for merchants, marketplaces and platforms, while also offering consumers a digital wallet for checkout, peer-to-peer transfers, savings and other financial services. It also sells merchant tools such as online checkout, payouts, invoicing, payment links, tap-to-pay and POS capabilities.

The company primarily makes money from transaction fees charged to merchants and businesses, supplemented by currency conversion, withdrawals, value-added financial services and newer advertising revenue through PayPal Ads. Its customers therefore span consumers using the wallet, SMBs and enterprises accepting payments, developers integrating APIs, and advertisers buying commerce media access based on PayPal's first-party transaction signals.