# PayPal

Standing (still-up). Founded 1998-12-01.
Site: [paypal.com](https://paypal.com)

Confinity / X.com merger energy, 1998-2000. Still the button a lot of the web cannot take off the page.

## Why it lasted
- It is the checkout button for people who do not want to type a card into a stranger's site.
- eBay needed it, then could not kill it after the spin-out.
- The brand still means 'send money' in places Stripe never reached.

## Near deaths
- The fraud years almost ended it. The mafia lore is cope: operations and freeze-risk were the product.
- Stripe, Square, Adyen, Apple Pay: death by nicer APIs. PayPal kept the consumer account graph.

## What would finish it
- Wallets owned by the phone OS plus merchant fees that finally make the yellow button optional everywhere.

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