EBay has promoted David Marcus, whose roots are in mobile payments, to president of PayPal. He replaces Scott Thompson, who left in January to become CEO of Yahoo, and reports directly to eBay Inc. president and CEO John Donahoe.
Marcus previously was vice president of Mobile for PayPal. He assumed that position in August 2011, when PayPal finalized its acquisition of Zong, the mobile payments company where Marcus was CEO and founder.
Of particular interest, Marcus leads the PayPal Here initiative, which includes a small triangular – definitely not Square – credit card reader and app that enables any mobile phone to be a global payment terminal for debit and credit cards, checks and PayPal, as well as to send invoices.
“David is the right leader for PayPal,” Donahoe said. “He is a successful technology entrepreneur with a passion for great products that engage and delight customers. David leads with a founder’s perspective. He will bring start-up energy to PayPal’s unmatched global reach and digital payments capabilities. And he will sharpen PayPal’s focus on accelerating product innovation, driving consumer engagement and making paying anytime, anywhere through your digital wallet a safe, easy and convenient experience. David’s appointment signals our deep commitment at PayPal, and across eBay Inc., to be a leading technology-driven and customer-focused product innovation company.”
PayPal launched as an online payments company in 1998 and added mobile payments in 2006. In 2011, PayPal processed $118 billion in payments from over 100 million users in 190 countries, including $4 billion in mobile payment volume. It recently has been expanding further into enterprise users, for example with Home Depot, which now accepts PayPal.
“Shopping is fun, but paying is not,” Marcus said. “PayPal has an incredible opportunity to make the way people pay simple, easy, and safe – everywhere, and at scale. I’m honored and excited to be asked to lead this unique business and help make the digital wallet an amazing experience for merchants and consumers worldwide.”
Related links:
eBay – press release
