In January, The Banker celebrated 10 years of the euro (see January issue, page 102). What you may have missed is that there was another 10-year celebration taking place at the same time - of a currency that has been just as successful as the euro, if not more so. This is the internet currency of PayPal. PayPal does the processing for its owners, internet buy and sell site eBay and in eBay's results forthe third quarter of 2008, PayPal managed $14.81bn-worth of payments, which represents 28% year-on-yeargrowth. It is also noteworthy that, having slipped to 71% of purchases being through eBay at the end of 2004, PayPal's Q3 2008 results showed that purchases made outside eBay are now greater than through eBay. In other words, PayPal is not eBay's payment system any more. It is the internet's payment system. All this, and only 10 years old. Yet PayPal was conceived in December 1998 at a time when there were many other contenders for the online payments crown. PayPal succeeded for three major reasons.
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