PayPal’s shares have gone up by nearly 80% so far this year — and in the past month, their stock market value has surpassed credit-card king American Express, and is on pace to usurp heavy Wall Street hitters like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The company’s mobile payment growth is picking up speed after a series of deals and biz partnerships with, ironically enough, companies like Mastercard and Wells Fargo — traditional financial firms that it’s poised to overtake.
Quite the resurgence
Currently valued at $84B, PayPal reported a better profit in the third quarter than expected, with mobile payments increasing 54% to about $40B. And PayPal’s price-to-earning ratio, currently at 31.9, is significantly higher than most of its competition.
In other words, if their success continues, PayPal’s dot-com era shareholders will be dusting off their early-aughts party hats in no time.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg
Since moving on from eBay in 2015, PayPal has expanded from processing money transfers between friends and smaller companies to larger companies and their customers.
On Monday, they released a new system directed at the Marketplace (aptly titled PayPal for Marketplaces) designed to allow those larger businesses — ride-sharing companies, crowdfunding channels, person-to-person e-commerce sites, etc. — to customize the way they use Paypal.
Basically, they’re moving up in the world.
And all of this growth is scaring the bu-Jesus out of traditional banks
As the mobile-based electronic money transfer market is growing, the financial industry has struggled to keep up, and they are worried that if PayPal’s success continues, they will, in a sense, fall by the wayside.
In other words, PayPal could be the unlikely dot-com era meteor to circle back and ruin the financial dinosaurs.
