A Short History of PayPal
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PayPal was founded in 1999 as a Dot Com startup intended to “allow people to transfer money securely from one Palm Pilot to another.”1 The service soon morphed into a method to allow people to transfer money from computer to computer, using e-mail. Burning venture capital in order to create a market, PayPal offered a $10.00 bounty for every new member referred.
In early 2000, eBay users had taken notice of PayPal and were clamoring to use the service to conduct their auction payment transactions. The founders of PayPal hadn’t given online auctions much consideration when they conceptualized their market but were willing to entertain any possible revenue stream. eBay was just the platform that PayPal needed to transform from a big idea to a reality that surpassed its founder’s wildest expectations.