Ten years after the service was first launched, PayPal says it now processes some $2000 in payments every second and transactions conducted via its system represent about nine per cent of e-commerce globally.
PayPal says its payments represent about around 12% of e-commerce in the US.
The firm, which was founded in 1998 and acquired by online auction house eBay in 2002, now has more than 60 million active accounts in 190 countries and 17 currencies around the world.
According to stats released earlier this year by Internet market research outfit Nielsen Online, PayPal processed $47 billion of payment volume globally in 2007 and over 100,000 Web sites now accept the service.
The stats also show that PayPal continues to be the most popular online payment service in Britain, with over 20 million user accounts now registered in the country, which represents more than a third of the UK's adult population.
Furthermore, take-up and use of the PayPal service globally looks set to grow even more in the future. A US study released by Javelin Research & Strategy in September 2007 predicted that alternative payment methods - such as PayPal - will increase to gain 30% of all online transaction volume by 2012, up from 14% in 2007. Javelin said consumers view alternative payment methods as a trusted and viable way to pay for online purchases.
A survey commissioned by PayPal "in honour of its ten years on the Internet" found that 84% percent of US respondents have been shopping online for five or more years and 87% report that they shop via the Web at least once a month.
Travel goods and services were found to be the most widely purchased items online, with 82% of respondents saying they use the Internet to make travel-related purchases.