Here are a few of the more interesting PayPal statistics and facts I was able to dig up. As always, be sure to check back in the future as I will be updating this post as new and updated stats become available.
Relatively speaking, PayPal has been around forever which makes it easy to take for granted. That said, who would've thought that the little service we used to pay for eBay impulse purchases 10 years ago would become such an eCommerce force and still going strong in 2018?
One would think that an online banking platform used by 200+ million people would have an abundance of interesting stats and PayPal certainly doesn't disappoint.
PayPal Facts
- PayPal website: paypal.com
- Year PayPal launched: 1998
- PayPal Headquarters: San Jose, CA
- PayPal Founders: Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Yu Pan, Max Levchin, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek
- PayPal CEO: Dan Schulman
- Key Subsidiaries: Braintree, Paydiant, Xoom, Venmo, Tradera, iZettle, TIO Networks, Honey, GoPay
What is PayPal?
PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, PayPal Smart Connect or account balances, without sharing financial information. (source)
PayPal Statistics
How many people use PayPal?
305 million active PayPal accounts
Last updated 1/29/20
How many merchants does PayPal have?
22 million active PayPal merchant accounts
Last updated 4/26/19
PayPal revenue:
- 2019: $17.77 billion
- 2018: $15.45 billion
- 2017: $13.09 billion
- 2016: $10.84 billion
- 2015: $9.24 billion
- 2014: $7.9 billion
Total PayPal payment transactions
- 2019: 12.4 billion payments
- 2018: 9.9 billion payments
- 2017: 7.6 billion payments
- 2016: 6.1 billion payments
- 2015: 4.9 billion payments
- 2014: 4 billion payments
Average number of annual transactions per active Paypal account:
Last updated 1/1/20
Number of currencies PayPal is available in:
Last updated 7/25/18
Number of markets that PayPal is available in:
Last updated 7/25/18
Average number of weekly PayPal OneTouch transactions:
Last updated 12/21/15
Number of merchants that use PayPal OneTouch:
Last updated 11/8/17
Percentage of PayPal users that use OneTouch:
17%
Last updated 10/20/16
Number of PayPal OneTouch registered users:
Last updated 11/8/17
Number of Braintree cards on file:
Last updated 6/5/16
If Paypal was a bank, it would be the 21st-largest bank in the U.S.
Average balance in a Paypal user account:
Last updated 6/3/16
Amount Paypal reportedly invested in MercadoLibre in 2019:
Amount Paypal reportedly invested in Uber in 2019:
Paypal revenue (quarterly):
- Q4 2019: $4.96 billion
- Q3 2019: $4.38 billion
- Q2 2019: $4.31 billion
- Q1 2019: $4.13 billion
- Q4 2018: $4.23 billion
- Q3 2018: $3.68 billion
- Q2 2018: $3.86 billion
- Q1 2018: $3.685 billion
- Q4 2017: $3.74 billion
- Q3 2017: $3.24 billion
- Q2 2017: $3.136 billion
- Q1 2017: $2.975 billion
- Q4 2016: $2.981 billion
- Q3 2016: $2.667 billion
- Q2 2016: $2.65 billion
- Q1 2016: $2.54 billion
Number of transactions processed by PayPal (Quarterly):
- Q4 2019: 3.5 billion
- Q3 2019: 3.1 billion
- Q2 2019: 3.0 billion
- Q1 2019: 2.8 billion
- Q4 2018: 2.9 billion
- Q3 2018: 2.5 billion
- Q2 2018: 2.3 billion
- Q1 2018: 2.2 billion
- Q4 2017: 2.2 billion
- Q3 2017: 1.9 billion
- Q2 2017: 1.8 billion
- Q1 2017: 1.7 billion
- Q4 2016: 1.8 billion
- Q3 2016: 1.5 billion
- Q4 2016: $99 billion
- Q2 2016: 1.4 billion
- Q1 2016: 1.41 billion
PayPal total payment volume (quarterly):
- Q4 2019: $199 billion
- Q3 2019: $179 billion
- Q2 2019: $172.36 billion
- Q1 2019: $161 billion
- Q4 2018: $164 billion
- Q3 2018: $143 billion
- Q2 2018: $139 billion
- Q1 2018: $132.3 billion
- Q4 2017: $131 billion
- Q3 2017: $114 billion
- Q2 2017: $106 billion
- Q1 2017: $99 billion
- Q3 2016: $87 billion
- Q2 2016: $86 billion
- Q1 2016: $81 billion
Number of Paypal users in Canada:
Last updated 4/15/16
Number of Canadian retailers and businesses that have used Paypal for payments:
Last updated 4/15/16
Number of Paypal users in the UK:
Last updated 7/18/19
Number of Paypal users in Germany:
Last updated 7/18/19
Number of Paypal users in France:
Last updated 7/18/19
Number of Paypal users in Italy:
Last updated 7/18/19
Number of Paypal users in Spain:
Last updated 7/18/19
Number of Paypal users in Australia/New Zealand:
Last updated 6/3/16
Average daily visits to Paypal.com:
Last updated 6/3/16
Number of PayPal One Touch merchant partners:
Last updated 3/1/17
Percentage of the top 100 US retailers that offer PayPal One Touch:
Last updated 3/1/17
Amount PayPal paid for Swedish fintech company iZettle:
Amount PayPal paid for Xoom:
$890 million
Amount PayPal paid for Braintree:
$800 million
Amount PayPal paid for Paydiant:
$280 million
Amount PayPal paid for Tio Networks:
$238 million
Amount PayPal paid for Swift Financial:
$183 million
Amount PayPal reportedly paid for Simility:
Amount PayPal reportedly paid for Hyperwallet:
Amount PayPal paid for Honey:
Number of PayPal One Touch users:
Last updated 1/31/18
Number of countries Xoom is available in:
Last updated 7/17/19
Total volume of the PayPal small business lending division:
Last updated 5/31/19
Number of loans issued by the PayPal small business lending division:
Last updated 5/31/19
Number of sellers the Paypal small business lending division has issued loans to:
Last updated 5/31/19
Average PayPal small business loan:
Last updated 5/31/19
This report is available in an annual industry report. Some of the data in industry reports include:
- Users
- Demographics
- Revenue
- Growth
- Etc.- all in one place
I try to go through each and every stat regularly and update as much as possible, but we all know that some stats are easier to track down than others. As always, every stat is linked to its original source and has the source date listed.
To get your copy of the report, click on the button below to purchase it.
Report 2: ePay Company Reports (Alipay, Android, Apple, PayPal, Paytm, Samsung, Square).