PayPal let's people pay directly with their bank accounts and also exists in way more countries, so it can be a firm of cheap or easy writing. This advantage may not last forever, but for now they allow exchanging money in s few more ways or a few more places depending on the use case.
Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
11–20 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#12Paypal provides an effective dispute resolution process and enables customers to pay for stuff by explicitly authorizing a payment and without giving away their payment info to unknown third-parties.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#13Paypal provides an effective dispute resolution process and enables customers to pay for stuff by explicitly authorizing a payment and without giving away their payment info to unknown third-parties.
I once saw a pdf which listed all the third parties that PayPal shares its information with. It was more than 30 pages.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#14Ease of use for the end users? If you have auto login enabled in your browser you can pay without even typing your password. After checkout you get redirected through Paypal, you are logged in automatically, you click 'OK' and get redirected to the 'thank you'-page. It's seamless. Secure? That can be debated. But it is the fastest way to pay for your online purchases. I know you're coming from a different standpoint…
Ease of use goes a bit against security. For example in Poland there's a popular intermediary przelewy24.pl, but it is just that - an intermediary. You do not create any additional account there, instead when you make a payment they redirect you to your bank's webpage, so you need to authorize directly against your own bank. Much better IMO than having the intermediary interact with my bank all by themselves.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#15Ease of use for the end users? If you have auto login enabled in your browser you can pay without even typing your password. After checkout you get redirected through Paypal, you are logged in automatically, you click 'OK' and get redirected to the 'thank you'-page. It's seamless. Secure? That can be debated. But it is the fastest way to pay for your online purchases. I know you're coming from a different standpoint…
Ease of use goes a bit against security. For example in Poland there's a popular intermediary przelewy24.pl, but it is just that - an intermediary. You do not create any additional account there, instead when you make a payment they redirect you to your bank's webpage, so you need to authorize directly against your own bank. Much better IMO than having the intermediary interact with my bank all by themselves.
Ease of use and security seldom go hand in hand...
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#16Paypal provides an effective dispute resolution process and enables customers to pay for stuff by explicitly authorizing a payment and without giving away their payment info to unknown third-parties.
I once saw a pdf which listed all the third parties that PayPal shares its information with. It was more than 30 pages.
how does that compare with a typical credit card company?
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#17Paypal provides an effective dispute resolution process and enables customers to pay for stuff by explicitly authorizing a payment and without giving away their payment info to unknown third-parties.
I once saw a pdf which listed all the third parties that PayPal shares its information with. It was more than 30 pages.
>> Paypal provides an effective dispute resolution process and enables customers to pay for stuff by explicitly authorizing a payment and without giving away their payment info to unknown third-parties.
> I once saw a pdf which listed all the third parties that PayPal shares its information with. It was more than 30 pages.
What kind of info do they share with those third parties?
I think the GP's point stands, since the "unknown third-part[y]" that customers are usually most concerned about is the merchant, which Paypal definitely doesn't share payment info with (like CC numbers).
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#18The fee is paid by businesses, not the end-user customers who use PayPal. Thus it doesn't even enter the equation when users choose PayPal.
I personally like PayPal because then I only have to update my card info in one place as opposed to 50 different websites. Also when some random website gets hacked, I can be sure that my card info isn't getting leaked.
In addition, some sites only accept cards that have been issued in a certain country, usually the US. When they also support PayPal, I can usually bypass this restriction.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#19It might be interesting to split out Paypal the company from Paypal the product. Here's some armchair quarterbacking:
Paypal the company (PayPal Holdings, Inc., NYSE: PYPL) has done well in recent years, where I think they've executed well on their inorganic growth strategy, where they've acquired 19 companies in the last 10 years, probably valued north of $10B. Venmo, Xoom, iZettle, and others are strong businesses in their own right, and Paypal hasn't done much to mess with them.
It would be interesting to see the growth of their primary "Paypal" product. From their 2017 Annual Report[1]:
> PayPal continues to drive the majority of our total P2P volumes, enabling both domestic and international P2P transfers across our Payments Platform. Our Venmo app in the U.S. is a leading mobile application used to move money between friends and family. Xoom is an international money transfer service that enables our customers to send money to, pay bills for and send prepaid mobile phone reloads for family and friends around the world in a secure, fast and cost-effective way, using their mobile device or personal computers.
They don't offer detailed financials, but it may well be that "PayPal continues to drive the majority of our total P2P volumes" because it started out so large. This is the "first-mover advantage" mentioned elsewhere in this comment chain.
I'm surprised as a consumer that Paypal hasn't done more to leverage the strength of their component brands (e.g., Venmo) with the strength of their network.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?
#20The fee is paid by businesses, not the end-user customers who use PayPal. Thus it doesn't even enter the equation when users choose PayPal. I personally like PayPal because then I only have to update my card info in one place as opposed to 50 different websites. Also when some random website gets hacked, I can be sure that my card info isn't getting leaked. In addition, some sites only accept cards that have been iss…
guess, to whom the business is passing these 5%?