PayPal processed $27 billion in mobile payments in 2013, out of a total of the $180 billion of total payments the company handled.
And the pace of mobile payments quickened as the year progressed: $8.8 billion of PayPal’s mobile payments were processed in the last quarter of the year.
In 2010, the eBay subsidiary processed just $600 million via mobile.
As usual, talk of PayPal dominated the earnings call for the San Jose-based eBay, this time because of board member Carl Icahn’s recently argued that PayPal should be spun off.
Active users at PayPal grew to 143 million, 6 million more than the previous quarter. PayPal revenue for the quarter was $1.8 billion. CEO John Donahoe said 70 of the Top 100 internet retailers in the US and 63 of the Top 100 retailers in the EU have incorporated PayPal into their systems.
Donahoe also acknowledged PayPal’s importance within eBay, saying, “In 2014 we’re stepping up our investments, particularly in PayPal.” He later expanded on this:
We’re increasing investments in emerging markets and to drive cross-border trade. PayPal will have a disproportionate share of these investments in 2014.
He also made a case against Icahn’s proposal to spin PayPal off, describing how eBay is good for PayPal:
Paypal and eBay make sense together for many reasons. Let me highlight three that we believe are among the most important. First, eBay accelerates Paypal’s success. Second, eBay data makes PayPal smarter. And third, eBay funds PayPal’s growth.
It should be noted that eBay generated $2.7 billion of revenue last quarter, about 1.5x more than PayPal.
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And not one mention of Square… Let’s be honest, PayPal wasn’t even considered a player in the 2012 race, so ANYTHING they did in 2013 should come as NO SURPRISE TO ANYONE. Even iPhone didn’t get the App until late July. Let me paint a realistic picture:
Square: “Merchants processed over $20 Billion in 2013 with my reader”.
PayPal: “… Uhhh…. My big brother sold a bunch of shit… Does that count?”
PayPal’s announcement in early 2012 to take over mobile payments couldn’t have been met with less excitement. It was the most boring product launch in history and merchants still could give two shakes less. It took eBay a whole 6 months to realize that no one was signing up before they decided to send us all free readers. By that time, most of us were happy with Square and tossed it into the desk drawer. Cast away as a second rate product that only serves as a backup for when we misplace that little Square…
Your wording makes it sound like they achieved some great financial feat, but in reality, they dropped the ball hard. Your readers might not be able to differenciate between mobile card processing and depositing a check on your smartphone, but you and I both know the only reason PayPal has ANYTHING to report is because of eBay’s sales on smartphones are skyrocketing.
But you didn’t have a single thing to say about “PayPal Here” and that’s the whole joke because neither does eBay! PayPal Here’s numbers are so embarrassing, they refuse to release them. For those of you that don’t know, “PayPal Here” is the name of PayPal’s credit card reader… Phillip didn’t mention the service because he knew you never heard of it. It’s really so much of a failure that nobody wants to acknowledge it’s existence. It’s not even mentioned in Wikipedia because they’ve never heard of it either. But I know they exist because they sent me one. Have you ever seen a merchant whip out one of these? http://conzepts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Paypal-3-325×325.jpg
But no matter how eBay PR & Co present the numbers, Square is easily the frontrunner in mobile phone payments with over $20B processed, demolishing PayPal Here at in 2013. I don’t know the exact number of downloads but the Square iPad app has 13,891 reviews in the App Store whereas PayPal Here has only 478. http://blog.otterology.com/the-numbers-behind-squares-5-billion-value/
I laugh at how eBay chose to loose a few billion dollars (and even more in marketshare) by not immediately spending a measly $10k to ship out readers to everyone. Since eBay’s too embarrassed to release their PayPal here numbers, we can only guess… My estimation is between 1-3 billion. Seriously.