PayPal is launching an ad network that will leverage its vast user data (6.5B payments by 400M customers) to drive growth. Led by Uber's former head of advertising, PayPal Ads will utilize AI and consumer behavior insights for targeted advertising.
But PayPal now aims to sell ads not only to its own customers, but to so-called non-endemic advertisers, or those that don’t sell products or services through PayPal. Those companies might use PayPal data to target consumers with ads that could be displayed elsewhere, for instance, on other websites or connected TV sets. PayPal processed 6.5 billion payments by approximately 400 million customers in the first quarter, according to its most recent earnings report. “If you’re someone who’s buying products on the web, we know who is buying the products where, and we can leverage the data,” Grether said. Consumers who use the PayPal credit card would also provide the company with data from real-world bricks-and-mortar stores, he added.