Introduction
PayPal is a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders.PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online, via a mobile device and in store. The service gives people simpler ways to send money without sharing financial information, and with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. With 137 million active accounts in 193 markets and 26 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global commerce, processing almost 8 million payments every day. Because PayPal helps people transact anytime, anywhere and in any way, the company is a driving force behind the growth of mobile commerce and expects to process $20 billion in mobile payments in 2013. PayPal is an eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) company and contributed 40 percent of eBay Inc.'s revenues in 2012. PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and its international headquarters is located in Singapore. Peter Thiel and Max Levchin founded PayPal in December 1998 under the name Confinity. Operating out of Silicon Valley, the idealistic vision of the company was one of a borderless currency, free from governmental controls. When venture capital funding combined witheBay transaction partnerships, PayPal quickly shot up to 1 million users after just 15 months [source: PayPal].
However, PayPal's success quickly drew the attention of hackers,scam artists and organized crime groups, who used the service for frauds and money laundering. New security measures stemmed the tide of fraud and customer complaints, but government officials soon stepped in.
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In a short two years, Paypal has risen...