What is PayPal? The Payment System
That (Almost) Everyone Uses

PayPal is an American publicly-traded online payment platform that offers individuals and businesses a quick, convenient and safe way to transfer funds electronically.

The service enables anyone with a valid email address to send and receive payments securely on the internet, without sharing financial information (such as credit card numbers) with the recipient.

Money transfers can be done via a number of funding sources: the customer’s bank account, credit card or account balance.
In addition, the company provides real-time payment processing services for online merchants, auction websites and a variety of other businesses.

PayPal serves U.S. based and international private customers and vendors.
With a huge number of active account holders located all over the world, what started as a revolutionary fintech startup quickly turned into a global giant that dominates the digital payments market, in terms of peer-to-peer (P2P) as well as buyer-to-merchant transactions.

PayPal was founded in 1998 and in 2002 was acquired by eBay; however, today it operates as an independent brand.
It makes monetary transactions possible across different countries, currencies, languages and devices, including mobile payments.