Mobile payments boom drives PayPal Q3 revenues to $3.6bn

19 Oct 2018

PayPal mobile app. Image: Mactrunk/Depositphotos

Mobile-savvy consumers are viewing their smartphones as their wallet.

Electronic payments giant PayPal has reported Q3 revenues of $3.6bn, up 14pc based on massive growth in online and mobile payments volumes.

The company said that during the quarter, it completed its sale of $6.9bn worth of credit receivables to Synchrony – this negatively affected growth by around 7pc.

Despite this, it added 9.1m active accounts and ended the quarter with 254m active accounts, up 15pc on last year. PayPal said payment transactions were up 27pc to 2.5bn and that it managed $143bn in total payment volume.

P2P performance

Crucially, person-to-person (P2P) volume grew 50pc to more than $36bn, and represented approximately 25pc of total payments volume (TPV) in the third quarter. In June, it scrapped its fees for euro money transfers between friends and family in Ireland and the UK in a bid to lure consumers away from cash towards faster mobile payments.

Strong mobile engagement on PayPal’s platform contributed to approximately $57bn in mobile payment volume, growing approximately 45pc. In the third quarter, mobile payment volume represented 40pc of overall TPV.

Venmo, the company’s social payments platform, processed approximately $17bn of TPV in the third quarter, growing 78pc. Over 12 months, Venmo processed approximately $54bn of TPV.

“PayPal had another excellent quarter,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal.

“New partnerships with American Express and Walmart will increase the value that we can offer to our customers. Our strong balance sheet and cash flow enable us to aggressively invest in innovation and growth, creating sustainable and long-term value for our shareholders,” Schulman added.

The payments giant employs more than 2,500 people at its operations in Dublin and Dundalk.

PayPal mobile app. Image: Mactrunk/Depositphotos

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com