eBay’s Full Year Report: “On average, PayPal added a million new accounts every month in 2011”  

From eBay’s Full Year 2011 report:

The company’s PayPal business continued to expand its leadership position in global payments. PayPal ended the quarter with 106.3 million active registered accounts, a 13% increase year over year. On average, PayPal added a million new accounts every month in 2011. PayPal revenue for the quarter increased 28% year over year driven primarily by continued merchant and consumer adoption as well as increased penetration on eBay.

How can a company so universally hated be doing so well? The online payments industry is begging for disruption. Actually, I think it’s more obvious than mere “begging”: it’s like PayPal is in the fetal position on the floor, screaming in agony, begging someone to shoot it in the head to end its misery. It treats its customers like they don’t matter, and yet it is still growing by a million users per month, with 28% year over year revenue growth.

The market is enormous, it’s basically unsaturated, and the dominant player is handicapped in more ways than one. Why are there so few new players, and why haven’t they grown more quickly?