Paypal’s shares surged after trading as an independent company following its finalised split from eBay on 20 July 2015, with the firm planning to capitalise on mobile-payments.
Paypal’s shares closed up 5.4% ($40.48) on the Nasdaq stock exchange after its first day publicly trading. Its current market capitalisation now exceeds eBay’s.
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Paypal’s Nasdaq appearance marks the second time in 17 years that it has traded independently.
Paypal was established in 1998 however it was bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.2B, where it remained for 13 years.
CEO of Paypal Dan Schulman will now drive the company to expand its reach in mobile and online payments:
"The convergence of mobile technology and cloud computing is unleashing incredible opportunities to transform how people move and manage money, and how merchants and consumers interact and transact.
"Our company has a leading position to deliver the benefits of this transformation."
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By GlobalDataPaypal is trading under the stock ticker ‘PYPL’, which is reference to the payment transfer services’ original branding before eBay’s acquisition in 2002.
Paypal is now aiming to further expand its reach to the ‘5 billion people in the world who own a mobile phone’, by putting a broad range of financial tools literally in their hands.
It plans to capitalise on the fast-growing online and mobile segments of digital payments by forming relationships with small businesses. It now serves more than 169million customers across the globe. In 2014, Paypal processed 4 billion payments, according to the company’s own figures.
Schulman reasoned that Paypal’s move from eBay will have benefits for the wider economy, not just big business: "We’ll work with merchants in markets across the globe so that in a world where all commerce is digital commerce, they can provide seamless, personalized experiences that deepen their engagement with customers while always preserving privacy and protecting security.
