Online person-to-person payment service PayPal says it has reached more than five million registered users and processed more than $1 billion in payments since launching just over a year ago.
Currently adding more than 20,000 new users a day, PayPal is the most heavily trafficked financial site on the Internet, with more visitors than any bank or brokerage site, according to PC Data Online. PayPal claims its users send approximately $7 million in more than 130,000 payments each day.
"We've proven to our users, investors and competitors that PayPal is the clear market leader in the online payment services market," proclaims Peter Thiel, chairman and co-founder of the California-based company.
PayPal enables consumers and businesses to send and receive cash payment messages funded from bank accounts, credit cards or their PayPal online accounts via email. Free to consumers and for personal use, businesses pay a transaction fee to receive payments, and qualify for additional premium features.
More than 600,000 businesses and business users have opened such fee-paying accounts, and more than two-thirds of all PayPal payments generate transaction fees, says Thiel.