We already brought you part one of our list of 15 things you probably did not know about PayPal, and now we’re back with part two! Check out eight more fascinating facts about one of the world’s most popular payment services that you definitely (probably) did not know below. You might be surprised by what you find out!
Number Eight: It Helped Launch YouTube. YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. They were able to use the company’s business model and connections to develop what would become the world’s most popular video-sharing platform.
Number Seven: Venmo Is One of its Subsidiaries. Though many people might think that Venmo – a mobile application that allows people to send money to each other – is completely separate from PayPal, in fact, it’s a subsidiary of it. The company currently has four subsidiaries in addition to Venmo, including Braintree, Paydiant, PayPal Credit, and Xoom Corporation.
Number Six: Their Operations Center Is Somewhere Where You’d Never Expect. It’s in Nebraska! Though the company headquarters are in San Jose with the rest of Silicon Valley, their operations center is actually based out of Nebraska.
Number Five: Users Can Hold Funds in 26 Different Currencies. International PayPal users are able to operate in all sorts of different currencies and can actually hold up to 26 different currencies in their account at any given time.
Number Four: One of Its Marketing Strategies Involved Giving Money Away. In the first phase of the company’s business model, people who agreed to sign up for an account would receive $10 – for free! The service did this as a marketing strategy to convince eBay users to sign up for an account.
Number Three: You Can’t Use the Service in Pakistan, Iraq or Afghanistan. PayPal does not support Pakistan, Iraq, or Afghanistan, and it also refuses to support the countries on the United States economic sanction list.
Number Two: In India, PayPal Users Always Have to Pay a Transaction Fee. This is because the company disabled its users in India from sending and receiving personal payments.
Number One: Don’t Ever Call it a Bank. Some people might be tempted to call the service a bank since it’s involved in the handing over of so much money; however, its founder has insisted that it’s not a bank since it doesn’t involve itself with fractional-reserve banking. We hope you enjoyed our list of 15 things you didn’t know about PayPal!