Episode summary
'It's a Verb Across the U.S.': PayPal CEO on Venmo | At Barron's
At Barron's
· · Hosts: Andy Serwer · Guests: Alex Chriss
Summary
PayPal CEO Alex Chriss framed the company as a global two-sided network that helps consumers and merchants move money, with more than 400 million consumers in its ecosystem and over 200 million transacting monthly. He said the turnaround has centered on restoring profitability, reviving Venmo growth, fixing the unbranded processing business, and improving PayPal branded checkout while pushing the company beyond digital payments into broader commerce services.
Chriss said Venmo has become “a verb” in the U.S., especially among teens and college students, while PayPal remains the stronger international brand for a broader age range. He emphasized newer products such as teen accounts, omnichannel tap-to-pay, PayPal Everywhere, and buy now, pay later as ways to meet changing consumer behavior, especially among younger shoppers who prefer debit but want credit-like flexibility for larger purchases.
He also argued that stablecoins and agentic commerce could reshape payments over time, with PYUSD initially aimed at costly cross-border transactions. On the stock, Chriss said he is not focused on the 2021 peak but on execution, consistency, and regaining investor trust through continued growth and operating discipline.
Key takeaways
- Chriss said PayPal serves over 400 million consumers globally, with more than 200 million transacting monthly across PayPal and Venmo.
- He said Venmo is strongest in the U.S. and has become especially important for teens, college users, and service businesses.
- Chriss said branded checkout now includes PayPal, Venmo, and buy now, pay later, and management sees a path to 8% to 10% growth by 2027.
- He said PYUSD stablecoin is initially targeted at cross-border payments where fees and settlement times are high.
- Chriss said the company was doing 300 different things before narrowing to three to five priorities, which he believes improved execution and profitability.
Notable quotes
“we are really focused on helping people move, spend uh and take care of their money in the best way possible”
“it's a verb across across the US”
“Venmo was a product that it really had been undermonetized for years”
“we see a path to get to 8 to 10% uh brand to checkout growth uh over over by 2027”
“We were doing 300 different things. And, you know, I really challenged the team to say, what are the three to five things that just matter the most”
How the episode opens
Hello everyone and welcome to At Barons. I'm Andy Sir and welcome to our guest Alex Chris, CEO of PayPal. Alex, great to see you. Thanks for joining us. — It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
So PayPal, people know that company and that brand and they also know that you own Venmo. But how would you describe the company, Alex, and what it does? Yeah, look, we are a couple of brands that you you just mentioned, PayPal and Venmo, and we are really focused on helping people move, spend uh and take care of their money in the best way possible.
And so, it's a global organization. We serve over 400 million uh consumers around the world. It's a two-sided network, so we're also deep with our our merchants and tens of millions of merchants that uh accept PayPal and accept Venmo.
and we create a frictionless experience between consumers and merchants and make sure that that transaction can happen in a safe and secure manner.
There's a lot to the business. We'll get into it. When you say 400 million, so is that daily users? How many of those people are using PayPal? How many are using Venmo? Can you give a little more color there, please?
Yeah. So, you know, 400 million is usually our 12-month rolling average. Uh, but over half of that actually transacts on a monthly basis. And so we've got over 200 million that are are transacting with us on a monthly basis and that's across both PayPal and Benmo. Uh and it's very global and so uh you know PayPal really has expanded and and become a payment mechanism around the world.
PayPal has a fascinating history going back to the PayPal mafia and Elon Musk and Peter Teal.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- venmo usage
- younger consumers
- shopping habits
- buy-now pay-later
- consumer payments
Companies and tickers mentioned
- PYPL
- PayPal
Watch the episode
Watch “'It's a Verb Across the U.S.': PayPal CEO on Venmo | At Barron's” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from At Barron's
-
Kai-Fu Lee on How AI Can Help Grow a Company's Earnings -
Rocket CEO: "Homeowners Are Still Waiting to Buy Homes" -
Moderna CEO on the Biotech’s Cancer Vaccine and Pipeline -
Anthony Scaramucci on Katie Zacharia, Trump, and the Midterms | At Barron's -
IMAX CEO on 'The Odyssey,' Chris Nolan, and Company's Sudden Ascent | At Barron's -
PG&E's CEO on Data Centers, Energy Rates, and the Stock | At Barron's
At Barron's, this episode and its artwork belong to At Barron's. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
