PayPal

PayPal is an American multinational financial technology company that operates one of the world’s largest online payments systems, serving consumers, merchants, and businesses across dozens of countries.

Founded in 1998 as Confinity by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Elon Musk, the company built its first product as a way to transfer money securely between Palm Pilot devices. That original focus quickly evolved into a broader digital-wallet vision, and the company soon adopted the PayPal name to signal its ambition around online payments.

The business gained mass-market scale through eBay, where PayPal became the dominant checkout option for auction buyers and sellers. It went public in February 2002 and was acquired by eBay later that year for $1.5 billion, operating as an eBay subsidiary through 2015 before being spun back out as an independent public company focused on digital commerce and financial services.

Since the spin-off, PayPal has expanded beyond checkout into credit, rewards, crypto, and small-business tools, while acquiring companies such as Honey to deepen its shopping and merchant offerings. Despite growing competition from big-tech wallets and buy-now-pay-later providers, it remains one of the most widely used digital payment platforms in the United States and globally.