When eBay decided to spin-off PayPal into its own separate entity in 2014, many industry observers believed the move would give the digital payments company the ability to become more nimble in the market and achieve true powerhouse status alongside the traditional card networks and payments processors.
To help spur that growth, PayPal hired Daniel Schulman as president and CEO to help prepare it for the eventual split from eBay in July 2015.
Schulman came over from American Express, where he helped set the card network down a path toward digital payments. And he’s done the same now for PayPal as the company continues to not only enhance its consumer-facing offerings but also help merchants become better suited to handle customers’ changing expectations when it comes to the in-store and online shopping experience.
PayPal’s busy 2017 is the reason why Mobile Payments Today selected the company as the top influencer in the industry for the past 12 months. We came to this decision based on the moves payments companies made in 2017 that made an impact on the industry. Mobile Payments Today decided that PayPal indeed was that company.
Wheeling and dealing
One thing that has defined PayPal since the eBay split is the number of acquisitions and partnerships the company has announced over the past couple of years that are meant to benefit both consumers and merchants.
PayPal’s most significant acquisition happened in 2013, before the split when it bought Braintree, which just happened to purchase Venmo a year earlier. Venmo is now the preferred mobile person-to-person app for a large portion of millennial consumers.
But the major acquisitions have continued since the eBay split.
