Haven't PayPal read Mark Twain?..

PayPal are bearish on cards - "Plastic Credit Cards Will Become Obsolete in 5 Years".

Surprise, surprise! Considering that MasterCard are introducing a digital wallet fee which will affect mainly... PayPal (as well as their... plastic card launched just six months ago), that statement is not surprising.

As Mark Twain put it, "the report of my death was an exaggeration".

How good are PayPal at predicting the market trends?

July 2011 - "PayPal shows off phone-to-phone NFC payment system for Android"
November 2012 - "PayPal yet to give up on NFC"
January 2013 - "NFC Not The Answer for Retailers, Says PayPal"

Ditto.

Don't get me wrong: PayPal is a solid company, they are great at what they are doing. However, they became too big (too fast) and, as a results, complacent. Also, operationally they are drowning in their own (growth) success - nearly half of PayPal's entire payroll works solely to field complaints, fix issues and offer resolutions.

David Marcus is there to shake things up (great interview, btw), to bring back some of the innovative & disruptive start-up culture. Will he succeed? We shall see.