In actuality, the bulk of this article discusses growth in existing products, including Venmo and Zoom, and then there were the checkout button and QR code payments which helped grow PayPal’s merchant services volume up 33% YoY. But future growth will come by becoming a super app which will be accomplished by adding more financial services products including banking and stock trading:
“The payments giant expects to reach 400 million global users by June, but it’s setting its sights on one day reaching 1 billion. In 2020, PayPal added 72.7 million net new accounts to reach a total of 377 million accounts globally, a 24% increase from 2019, when net new accounts increased by 37.3 million. Merchants were a driving force behind PayPal’s user growth thanks to its core products, from its one-click online checkout button to in-store innovations like its QR code payments, which helped meet consumer needs during the coronavirus pandemic. Indicative of merchant growth is PayPal’s merchant services volume, which grew 33% YoY, up from the 27% YoY growth it posted in 2019, suggesting that these offerings likely brought in new sellers.
PayPal is hoping to become a super app as it explores innovations that’ll help morph it into a “one-stop shop for all consumer financial needs.” PayPal is already moving beyond its existing offerings and inching toward other financial services, such as crypto, which it noted as a key growth area in 2021: Schulman recently said that PayPal’s new dedicated crypto unit will focus on helping increase the utility of digital currencies.
PayPal has also expressed interest in expanding into banking and stock trading. These could be the logical next steps for the payments giant considering that Square, a major competitor, is reaching into the space with new stock trading options and recently debuted its industrial bank, Square Financial Services. Doing so could aid PayPal’s one-stop financial services shop ambitions and perhaps help the company increase its user base and volume.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group