PayPal Blows Past 250M Active Accounts

PayPal President and Chief Executive Dan Schulman announced on Thursday (Sept. 6) that the number of active accounts on its platform recently surpassed the 250 million mark.

In a company blog post, Schulman said this marks an important milestone for the digital payments company. “On Feb. 27, 2017, we announced that we had surpassed 200 million active accounts. The fact that we’ve added an additional 50 million accounts in a little more than 18 months – nearly three million accounts per month – is a testament to the tireless work you’ve done on behalf of our customers to add more and more value to our platform, ” the CEO wrote in a letter to employees that was published on the company’s official blog.

To illustrate the importance of the 250 million mark, Schulman pointed out that if PayPal was a country, it would be the fifth most populated, ahead of Brazil and just behind Indonesia.

“Like everything else in our business, it’s not about the macro numbers, it’s about the individual experiences. The small businesses that support families and fuel communities. The single parents managing for their families,” wrote Schulman. “The college students figuring out their budgets. The non-profits working to serve those in need. The people and families and entrepreneurs who are new to digital finance and turn to us because they need a better way to borrow, to save, to spend, to share. The immigrants working hard to create a better life for their families and using our platform to send money back home.”

The strong growth at PayPal comes as the company is gearing up to engage in mergers and acquisitions. Back in July, in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt business newspaper, Schulman said the company has earmarked $3 billion for future deals. “We have a healthy balance sheet and we are ready to put it to work to buy more companies,” the executive said at the time.  “I wouldn’t rule out that we take on a bigger deal if there’s a good fit for us.”