PayPal launched its Buy in 4 platform in August last year, making its entry into the increasingly competitive lending niche to go head-to-head with the likes of Klarna and Afterpay. The business saw a 400% year-on-year rise on its volumes going through ‘buy now, pay later’. Its CEO, Dan Schulman, said: “We had more than 1 million first-time users for the first time ever in the month of November” and added: “It’s not just popular but accelerating in popularity.”

Whichever industry you focus on, PayPal is a player in the game. The rumoured acquisition of Pinterest for £32.6bn suggests that it doesn’t have any intention of slowing down. However, what’s more interesting is that this could signal a desire to facilitate social media payments. Using PayPal for microtransactions inside social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram could take PayPal in a new direction.

The potential acquisition shifts PayPal at the heart of the emerging metaverse where we could now see it expand its financial ecosystem and become a driving force.

PayPal’s UK Marketing Director was promoted to her role in November 2020 after the company’s former CMO left to join tech company HMD Global. It hasn’t called for a media, creative or digital review for over five years. And with all the changes the company is going through and new competitors emerging within its sector, 2022 may be the year it will be on the hunt for new agency partners to refresh its image and revamp its advertising and marketing strategy.

If PayPal is a company you‘d like to work with, ALF can show you its marketing team.