No one can accuse PayPal‘s management of being unambitious. In its Investor Day on Thursday, CEO Dan Schulman set some lofty new targets for the company. Among these are new revenue streams like stock trading and high-yield savings accounts, which — if introduced and run effectively — could be natural and lucrative extensions of its existing business.
Schulman also said that the company would like to nearly double its customer base. The aim is to reach 750 million active accounts by 2025; as of the end of its most recently reported quarter, it had around 377 million. It also sees revenue rising more than twofold, to $50 billion, on payments volume that should triple to $2.8 billion.
In its Q4 and full-year 2020 results published last week, PayPal’s net revenue was nearly $21.5 billion, and its payments volume came in at $936 billion for the year. Both metrics were significantly higher on a year-over-year basis, with the latter aided significantly by a 56% rise in volume from the company’s hugely popular Venmo P2P payment app.
The coronavirus pandemic has boosted e-commerce activity, as many people remain sheltered in place at home. This trend benefits digital transactions pioneer PayPal. Nevertheless, it’s hardly the only e-payment game in town these days, so the high growth rates it’s posting are admirable. They also suggest that the company could very well reach its lofty goals, particularly with new sources of revenue.
On Thursday, PayPal inched 0.7% higher, slightly outpacing the rise of the S&P 500 index on the day.
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