PayPal was originally named Confinity when it launched in 1998. The company was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Ken Howery, initially developing security software and mobile-payment ideas.
Confinity merged with X.com, an online banking company founded by Elon Musk, in 2000. The combined business adopted the PayPal name, and eBay acquired PayPal in 2002. PayPal later became an independent publicly traded company again in 2015.
The early history can be confusing because PayPal’s identity emerged from a merger rather than from a single original business plan. X.com and Confinity both contributed to the company that became the familiar digital-payments service.
PayPal operates a large online payments network for consumers and merchants. Its shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker PYPL, making it a distinct company from payment-card networks such as Visa and Mastercard.