PayPal has long been a big player in the world of online payments. This year was going to be an interesting one for the company, though, with many people heading back to work or traveling and the recent launch of their new cryptocurrency service. Now that the third-quarter earnings report has been published, there’s a lot to unpack.
What Do People Like About PayPal?
PayPal has long been popular because its features help its users feel more financially secure. One of the most regularly touted reasons for using PayPal is the added protection that buyers have when making online payments. For decades consumers have been told to pay with their credit cards because they’ll have more protection than when using a debit card. PayPal skirted around this issue by creating their own system that allows users to challenge sellers and potentially get their money back. The system usually sides with the buyer, which has seen them go from strength to strength as it gains the trust of millions each year.
How Has PayPal Branched Out Over Recent Years?
As well as being an e-wallet provider PayPal have always been keen to offer other useful financial services – in the past, they have offered a PayPal debit card, and they recently announced that PayPal US and PayPal UK would offer Cryptocurrency trading.
This year PayPal added to their already extensive list of features with the option to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency in the same PayPal account that you use with your bank card. It’s no secret that cryptocurrency has been gaining traction very quickly, and PayPal’s entrance to the space not only adds credibility to the world of crypto but introduces new users to the space.
How Has 2021 Looked For PayPal?
All of this makes 2021 a very interesting year for PayPal, and with Christmas, just around the corner, a lot of people were interested to hear how the company had performed in Q3. The company didn’t disappoint with an impressive 13% increase in revenue for this quarter. PayPal’s revenue per share also exceeded expectations at $1.11 per share rather than the predicted $1.07. Despite all of the company’s successes, PayPal did miss out on revenue slightly, reporting $6.18 billion rather than the expected $6.23 billion.
It’s clear that crypto has been a big driver for success. At the press conference, PayPal announced that they intend to enhance cryptocurrency offerings on the platform with hints of the company working to help the development of a central bank digital currency. The cryptocurrency app within PayPal has led to an increase of 15% in first-time users transacting with crypto & has also driven a 35% lift in the cash card enrolments.
PayPal will likely be an increasingly big player in the cryptocurrency market, which may also lead to a rise in PayPal’s use for online gambling. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the launch of several crypto-casinos, partially driven by the increased identity checks that users of traditional online casinos face thanks to a change in the law.
Gambling and PayPal
As PayPal has become a popular way for people to complete transactions online, it stands to reason that the online gambling industry is going to want to be part of this too.
Many online casinos already accept PayPal as a form of payment, but for people seeking more anonymity when gambling online, PayPal could be the perfect middle ground. Cryptocurrency can feel very daunting for those who don’t fully understand it, which can put them off from purchasing any digital currency. PayPal providing cryptocurrency transactions is an easy way for less confident users of digital currencies to dip their toe in with a brand that a lot of people trust.
TopRatedCasinos.ie, shows that many casinos accept PayPal as a form of payment, so if you are looking to spend at a casino online using your PayPal balance, you should find a casino that matches your needs without too much hassle at all!
While using PayPal to gamble on a crypto casino isn’t totally anonymous, it does mean that users of these online casinos are likely to give a lot less information away than on traditional websites where companies need to follow UK law and ask for proof of identity and address. A lot of crypto casinos are off-shore, so they don’t follow UK regulations.
PayPal has seen explosive growth over the past decade, and while the quarter three report was a bit of a mixed bag, it’s shown that cryptocurrency has been a massive success for PayPal so far, and they’re likely to become a major player in the future.
Will This Continue?
With people favoring the likes of PayPal to complete transactions online, it is likely that more industries will start to adopt it as the main way for people to spend on their platforms. There is no denying that PayPal is a major player in the eCommerce industry and this isn’t likely to change any time soon. However, what we can’t be sure of is what gambling regulations we might see in the future and what change this might have to the way people can spend. For example, in the UK, you are now no longer able to use a credit card to deposit directly onto casino websites in an attempt to prevent people from being able to bet money they can’t afford to lose. However, people can use PayPal to get around this, so that could be something that is cracked down on in the future; we’ll have to wait and see!
