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PayPal’s stronghold in the US is because eBay was one of the first ways to buy things online and using PayPal was the only way to pay. I’m sure PayPal didn’t ha
by theturtletalks 4y ago
PayPal’s stronghold in the US is because eBay was one of the first ways to buy things online and using PayPal was the only way to pay. I’m sure PayPal didn’t have that sort of leverage in other countries where online sales grew in other ways.
- lancesells 4y agoeBay is going to stop supporting or offering PayPal next year.
- hakfoo 4y agoI think the narrative is a little different. eBay got big, and at the beginning you did the usual terrible American mail-order payment methods-- personal cheques and money orders. I can recall getting money orders because they'd usually clear faster and I might get my item in a couple weeks! PayPal was one of several competitors in the early 2000s, but they were by far the most successful; I suspect this was because they did a lot of "we'll give you and the recipient USD5 as a referral fee" growth hacking. Eventually, they merged with eBay and the "they're the dominant choice" became "they're the only choice."
- theturtletalks 4y agoGood point. What were the PayPal competitors in the early days?
- hakfoo 4y agoThe one I recall was Citibank's C2IT. They decided to offer an even larger referral bonus (USD 10 IIRC) so some people ran obvious-sham auctions basically advertising "we only take this, and here's the convenient referral link for me right here."