PayPal is the largest online payment system in the world with over 250 million accounts in 200 countries.
PayPal was founded as Confinity by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek in 1998. At the same time, Elon Musk founded the online bank X.com and the two companies eventually merged in 2000 to become PayPal. The original employees of PayPal are called the PayPal Mafia. They founded numerous companies including YouTube and Yelp.
PayPal was acquired by eBay after its IPO and it 2015, it spun off from eBay after pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn.
PayPal is registered as a bank in Luxembourg