PayPal is an online payment service that lets people send money and make purchases over the internet using an email address. It began in 1998 as Confinity, founded in California by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery, and its first product allowed users to beam payments between handheld devices. In 2000 Confinity merged with X.com, an online bank founded by Elon Musk, and the company took the name PayPal in 2001. eBay bought it in 2002, and it was spun off as an independent company again in 2015. Several of its early staff became known as the PayPal Mafia for going on to found other major technology firms.
Before and after
- 8 October 1998Construction of Oslo Airport
- 19 November 1998Release of Half-Life
- 20 November 1998Launch of International Space Station
- from 28 November 1998 to 30 January 2019Premiere of Oggy and the Cockroaches
- December 1998Launch of PayPal
- 11 December 1998Launch of Mars Climate Orbiter
- 20 December 1998Birth of Kylian Mbappé
- 1999Founding of Maritime, Fluvial and Harbor Museum of Rouen
- January 1999Discovery of flerovium
More in Science & technology
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 1971Email
- 1973Mobile phone
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- August 2003Discovery of moscovium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.