PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American company operating a worldwide online payments system. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to traditional paper methods like checks and money orders. PayPal is one of the world’s largest Internet payment companies.
The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.
history
PayPal was established in December 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for handheld devices founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery. PayPal was developed and launched as a money transfer service at Confinity in 1999, funded by John Malloy from BlueRun Ventures.
In March 2000, Confinity merged with X.com, an online banking company founded by Elon Musk. Musk was optimistic about the future success of the money transfer business Confinity was developing.
Musk and then-president and CEO of X.com, Bill Harris, disagreed on this point and Harris left the company in May 2000. In October of that year, Musk made the decision that X.com would terminate its other Internet banking operations and focus on the PayPal money service.
The X.com company was then renamed PayPal in 2001, and expanded rapidly throughout the year until company executives decided to take PayPal public in 2002. Paypal’s IPO listed under the ticker PYPL at $13 per share and ended up generating over $61 million.
PayPal.Me
On September 1, 2015, PayPal launched their peer-to-peer payment platform “PayPal.Me,” a service that allows users to send a custom link to request funds via text, email, or other messaging platforms. Custom links are set to be structured as PayPal.me/username/amountrequested.
PayPal.Me was launched in 18 countries including United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, Russia, Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. PayPal had 170 million users, as of September 2015, and the focus of PayPal.Me was to create a mobile-first user experience that enables faster payment sharing than PayPal’s traditional tools.
In June 2016, it was announced that PayPal had joined the Fortune 500 for the first time.
Services
As of 2016, PayPal operates in 202 markets and has 188 million active, registered accounts. PayPal allows customers to send, receive and hold funds in 25 currencies
worldwide.
PayPal’s services allow people to make financial transactions online by granting the ability to transfer funds electronically between individuals and businesses. Through PayPal, users can send or receive payments for online auctions on websites like eBay, purchase or sell goods and services, or donate money or receive donations. It is not necessary to have a PayPal account to use the company’s services.
Additional Benefits
- Aids in customer retention and drives new customers to your store – Merchants gain access to PayPal’s preferred customer base.
- 50 million+ active U.S. customers
- No set-up fees
- One combined statement – your merchant statement will contain Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and PayPal transactions.
who is Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, investor, engineer, and inventor.
He is the founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Motors; co-founder and chairman of SolarCity; co-chairman of OpenAI; co- founder of Zip2; and founder of X.com which merged with PayPal of Confinity. As of June 2016, he has an estimated net worth of US$11.5 billion, making him the 83rd wealthiest person in the world.
Musk has stated that the goals of SolarCity, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity. His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the “risk of human extinction” by “making life multiplanetary” by setting up a
human colony on Mars.
Career Zip2
In 1995, Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2, a web software company, with US$28,000 of their father’s (Errol Musk) money. The company developed and marketed an Internet “city guide” for the newspaper publishing industry. Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune and persuaded
the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.
SpaceX
In 2001, Musk conceptualized “Mars Oasis”; a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith, in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration. In October 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college), to buy refurbished ICBMs (Dnepr) that could send the envisioned payloads into space.
Musk and President Barack Obama at the Falcon 9 launch site in 2010
With US$100 million of his early fortune, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in June 2002. Musk is chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technology officer (CTO) of the Hawthorne, California-based company. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of
rocket technology.
The company’s first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets (a nod to Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon), and its first spacecraft is the Dragon (a nod to Puff the Magic Dragon). In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft.
In September 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit. SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket motors in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for any known rocket motor.
Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding.
Both men played active roles in the company’s early development prior to Elon Musk’s involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla’s board of directors as its chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was
not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.
Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today. Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan on
June 22, 2012. It unveiled its third product, the Model X, aimed at the SUV/minivan market, on February 9, 2012.
the Model X launch was however delayed until September 2015. In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A
Class and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV. Musk was able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla.
SolarCity
Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. Musk remains the largest shareholder. SolarCity is now the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.
Hyperloop
On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a concept for a high-speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. The mechanism for releasing the concept was an alpha-design document that, in addition to scoping out the technology, outlined a notional route where such a transport system might be built: between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area.
OpenAI
In December 2015, Elon Musk announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. OpenAI aims to develop artificial general
intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity.
