(19 February 2019 – USA) PayPal CEO Dan Schulman estimates the digital payments market will exceed US$100 trillion in the short to medium term with PayPal currently representing between one to two percent of the market.
PayPal’s mobile payment service “Venmo” and other digital payment models are unlikely to be negatively affected by weak North American holiday sales and a mounting global macroeconomic slowdown. The number of payments processed across Venmo grew by 80 percent year-on-year. Mr Schulman excepts PayPal may process in excess of US$100 billion in transactions in 2019. The average Venmo transaction is about $50, and the average Venmo user transacts five times per week. Asia remains one of the fastest growing regions for the company. Venmo may not be profitable through at least the next two quarters, but the business is slated to be very profitable over the medium to long term.
“The total adjustable market of US$100 trillion is what we’re playing into. We live in the space of digital commerce and digital commerce is exploding still around the world. There’s an explosion in digital commerce and we’re riding that wave. What we see is pretty positive” he said. “P2P, or peer-to-peer payments, is exploding in the market. It’s a multi-hundred-billion-dollar marketplace. This will definitely not be a winner take all. I think the two will live side by side and it won’t be a winner take all.”