Moderate your managerial ambitions, don't seek quick investments, and stay romantic. Then you can succeed in Silicon Valley. When Max Levchin from Kiev decided to move to California, he rented a truck, stuffed his entire office, which consisted of six desks and twenty-four computers, and drove across America from Chicago to the west.
- Max, were you thinking about the pioneers at that moment? Vans, Wild West, riders ride into the sunset? Symbolically!
- I didn't think about the pioneers, I thought about when the car would break down. She broke down twice on the way. The second time it happened was in Nevada in the middle of the desert. Well, not quite a desert, not the Sahara ... plain and cacti. I got out of the car and saw a sign in front of me: "Do not stop, do not open doors and do not take fellow travelers for the next 20 miles." This was the area around the maximum security prison. We spent a cheerful night then, until in the morning from the nearest town, about thirty or forty miles from us, repairmen arrived and fixed us. That's how I entered California. It was on August 28, 1998.

In California, Max Levchin created a company that made him famous all over the world. PayPal - the system of "Internet money" - is now the number one payment system in the world. In 2002, PayPal bought the online mega-auction eBay, one of the five largest Internet companies in the world, for $ 2.2 billion, and made it its settlement system. Now Max is probably the most popular technology entrepreneur in the United States from the former USSR - this fall, news that he launched a new project Slide.com (a system for sharing photo albums over the Internet), in two days bypassed all publications from specialized to the New York Times. But he is far from the only "our" innovative entrepreneur who has found his success in America.

There are already quite a few success stories of Russian innovative entrepreneurs in the United States. Most of the successful companies were founded by Russians in California. In addition to PayPal, such large companies as Genesys (Grigory Shenkman and Alex Miloslavsky), Acronis (Sergey Belousov) and, of course, Google (Sergey Brin) were created here, not to mention smaller companies - Invincible Data Systems by Alex Frida and Sergey Burkov ... California, of course, is not the only place where Russian entrepreneurs meet. Sergey Belousov, the founder of Acronis, created his next company, SWsoft, in Herndon, Virginia, having previously built successful companies in Moscow (Sunrise, Rolsen and ASP Linux) and Singapore. Samuel Geisberg, founder of Parametric Technology, was based in Massachusetts, another famous venture capital area called Highway 128. Aelita by Ratmir Timashev was founded in Dublin, Ohio. But they all ended up in Silicon Valley. Many of our compatriots have become "serial entrepreneurs": they have created more than one or two companies during their careers. For Max Levchin, PayPal was the sixth company. The previous five were not particularly successful - even from the sale of the penultimate, fifth, he received very little money, and even then not immediately. His sixth success, however, more than made up for all previous failures. The oldest success story goes back to Soviet times. Alex Fried, having graduated from Phystech in the early 1980s, realized that his skills in radio electronics could be a source of good income. Imported video recorders, which had just appeared in the USSR, were incompatible with domestic TVs. They had to buy an imported TV set (together, this harvester cost almost as much as a new Zhiguli) or somehow bring to mind a Soviet TV set. Alex has developed a "PAL block" for domestic TVs. Clients signed up to the young master in a queue. For a night or two of soldering and assembly, one could earn 700 rubles - the minister's salary. “I had more money than I could really spend,” Alex recalls those days. After moving to the United States, he started practically from scratch and, after working for eight years at Adobe Systems, created two companies with entrepreneur Sergei Burkov, first Bilbo, and then Invincible Data Systems. This smart card data protection company was sold to a Belgian firm. Now Alex Fried is engaged in computer games. His office, like the former Soviet apartment, looks like a laboratory: it is crammed from top to bottom with testers, oscilloscopes and other devices. Sergey Belousov also started in Russia, where he took part in the creation of the Sunrise computer distributor, then launched a production company consumer electronics... The latter business was conceived as assembling TVs for LG, but a few years later the company launched its own brand, Rolsen, and last year acquired the Rubin plant, known in Soviet times. A few years later, Belousov moved to Singapore, where he began to develop software. In the course of this business, the core of the team was formed, which gave rise to several companies at once: ASP Linux spun off from the Singapore business in Russia, distributing the Russian version of Linux, and in the USA - Acronis and SWsoft. All of these companies are thriving. In the main computer supermarket of California, Fry's, boxes are prominently displayed with the inscription Acronis True Image (software for automating the creation of backups computer information). SWsoft manufactures automation and virtualization tools for data centers. Its services are used by 75% of all web hosting companies in the world: they use SWsoft technology to provide their customers with "virtual disks" for hosting websites. Most of our ex-compatriots are technicians and have achieved success thanks to their engineering talent. Almost all of them are graduates of prestigious technology schools. There were no professional leaders among them, so they learned the science of entrepreneurship in practice. What their experiences have in common is that they did not pretend to be omniscient bosses seeking to control all areas of their business. And this is not uncommon among Russian entrepreneurs, and the mistakes made by a good engineer, who decided to become a bad manager, have ruined more than one startup. Russians from Silicon Valley, on the other hand, are not afraid to delegate their powers and do not take on unnecessary tasks, preferring to create teams with specialists of all kinds. Max Levchin started his sixth startup, PayPal, by finding an older friend, hedge fund manager Peter Thiel, to whom he transferred the burden of general leadership, limiting himself strictly to an engineering role. On the eve of our meeting with Levchin, the Californian newspapers every week flashed messages: "The founding fathers of PayPal have created another startup", "The total number of founders has exceeded a couple of dozen." “Of course,” Max Levchin remarks ironically about this. - Success always has a thousand dads. It's just a failure, always an orphan. " One of such children of Lieutenant Schmidt somehow even got a listener to a public lecture by Peter Thiel (at which Thiel and Levchin met) - at least that's what it was said in one of the many lawsuits that were brought against PayPal on the eve of the sale. The real creators of PayPal are six people: Peter, Max and their first employees. “The story of PayPal is, first of all, the story of the team, not me,” says Levchin. - The first six carried the company on themselves. Our leader Peter Thiel, as a professional financier, has built the right banking business behind the PayPal façade. I brought in the entire tech team, bringing in two of my fellow college students. Peter brought in an economist from Stanford. And the latter, Luke, we knew well from old connections: I worked with him, and Peter invested money in him. "

Max is certainly downplaying his role: without his talent as a programmer and mathematician, the company would not have survived. The PayPal security system developed by him allowed this payment system to remain invulnerable to hackers when all competing systems were ruined by them. But all the other entrepreneurs we interviewed said the same about themselves: everyone should do what he knows best. “I prefer to be an engineer rather than an investor,” says Alex Fried, who has participated in several startups. "From each according to his ability." Like Max Levchin, Alex Fried for a long time worked in collaboration with partner, Sergei Burkov, who took on marketing and management tasks in both of their joint startups. At the same time, Alex is by no means an inveterate techie, but an independent serial entrepreneur with a success story stretching back to Soviet times. For him, giving up the leadership role in business is a conscious choice. Sergei Belousov, it seems, on the contrary, prefers not to go deep into R&D - he is the leader. He is now closely engaged only in his main company SWsoft, maintaining ties with all the old companies. Belousov handed over the Acronis management to a new manager. Venture funds, which have invested very considerable sums in both of Sergey's companies, even for California, do not like it when an entrepreneur is scattered, and, according to Belousov, this is justified. “The fact that I’ 'wear multiple hats is definitely not an advantage, ”says Belousov. “But thanks to this, I understand very well how important it is to focus on what you are doing, and I can make my managers focus the same way. At Acronis, Rolsen and other companies, I remain one of the main shareholders. There is, however, synergy between all these companies. We exchange clients, we license technologies to each other. But most importantly, through this connection, you can learn from each other's experiences and borrow the most valuable business practices. This is partly why Acronis and others are so successful. " However, Belousov is rather an exception. Engineering excellence for our compatriots turns into secondary roles in business. Sergei Belousov believes that management is a weak side of Russian business, inherited by many immigrant entrepreneurs. “In Russia it is difficult to organize sales, marketing, project management. We do not know how to do this, - notes Belousov. "It's harder for the average Russian native to build, say, a software business than the average Silicon Valley native." But in Western, more precisely, American conditions, our technicians learn quickly. The same Max Levchin over the years spent at PayPal has grown strongly as a manager and in his new startup Slide.com is already a leader himself, determining his strategy. “Russians are now viewed as Indians 30 years ago, valued as employees and engineers, but hardly as entrepreneurs,” said Anna Dvornikova, president of the American Business Association of Business Professionals (AMBAR). “However, the situation is beginning to change, largely thanks to the success of such popular people as Levchin, Bryn or Shankman.”

In Russia, tech entrepreneurs often start by reaching out to investors with a crude product, a crude business plan, or nothing at all but development. And they are very offended when they are refused. Understandably, the investor's unwillingness to invest in a developer who has a vague idea of ​​the business and the purpose of attracting investment, does not want to recognize the investor and invited managers the right to business decisions, but is endowed with exorbitant ambitions and firmly believes in his infallibility. Investments of such a would-be entrepreneur will not fix it; rather, he will waste money. Paradoxically, in Silicon Valley, where most of the world's venture capital is concentrated, Russian innovative entrepreneurs are not particularly keen on getting venture capital money. Enthusiasm and energy can be spent on pushing the thresholds of investment funds, or on developing business and technology, looking for buyers for a product and building a company. Sergey Belousov, in which one of the oldest and largest Silicon Valley funds - Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as Intel Capital and Insight Venture Partners invested, emphasizes that he was not looking for investment money on purpose. “At the time of raising money, both of my companies were already profitable and did not feel the vital need for money,” Belousov explained to ‘Expert’. - I received a number of offers from investors and chose Insight. They already had experience of working with Russian companies (I most of all relied on Ratmir Timashev's feedback from ‘Aelita’). I selected investors for SWsoft according to their strategic importance for the company: Bessemer for verifying the business model, Intel Capital for strategic contacts. The management of the same Insight believes that Russia generally has a great future as a technology country and that we have a lot of interesting things. Russia is interesting as a country where complete technologies will be developed, and not as an outsourcing center like India or China. But this is a 'late-phase' fund that does not fund start-up companies.

All entrepreneurs who talked to us found start-up capital bypassing venture funds. Situations are not uncommon when an entrepreneur gets into bad debts, collects money from credit cards at high interest rates and even mortgages a house, if only the business continues. Max Levchin did just that, building his first company at the cost of a ruined credit history.

“At the beginning of my studies at the university (1995-1996) I got credit cards and accumulated a couple of thousand of debt on them,” Max says. - My first company, Sponsornet, is me and three school friends. So early banner network... I did not understand so much how a loan works that I did not pay even the minimum payments. And messed up your credit history. Then, of course, I cleared it, but even now I pay with plastic with caution - what if I'm back in the stop list? "

The condition of the owner of a dubious credit history, according to my estimates, is now estimated at eight digits. Now he has no problems with start-up capital, but even the sixth PayPal was not easy for him.

Max, when you started PayPal, you had money from the sale of your previous company. Has this somehow changed PayPal's chances of success?

The fact of the matter is that I had no real money on hand. There were documents for receiving money for two years and $ 7,500. After renting an apartment, there were two thousand dollars left in my hands, and I still had to buy a car - my partner Peter Thiel ordered, he was tired of driving me everywhere. When we created PayPal, we had to deposit the statutory capital - 10 thousand dollars for everyone. I hesitated to take a smaller share. We lived without wages for a long time, I got into debt. And I also met Peter from lack of money: I lived in a very cheap apartment without air conditioning, I was looking for a place in Stanford where I could sit out the heat, and so I wandered into his lecture.

The PayPal team lived on personal savings for several months and received the first investment when a lot was already done on the project. And Alex Fried did without venture money altogether, building the company from start to finish, that is, before the sale, without resorting to the help of funds.

Venture funds are expensive. For them you have to give the greater share in the company, the earlier you look for them and the less developed the company is. All our interlocutors pointed out that venture capital money should be taken only when it is absolutely impossible to do without it, while you can build a company on personal talent, creativity and enthusiasm, you should not turn to them. Sergei Belousov emphasized that he began to receive proposals for venture financing when his companies no longer needed venture capital, and the less money he needed, the more they were offered.
What is your startup
So, our entrepreneurs are not going to Silicon Valley for money. And for what? The main thing that Silicon Valley can give is a special attitude towards entrepreneurs and a special relationship between entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is generally considered a prestigious occupation in America, but in Silicon Valley it is almost a cult. One of the author's interlocutors jokingly remarked: "In other states, girls will ask when they meet you what kind of car you have, here they will ask what kind of startup you have."

“The inhabitants of the 'edge of the bay' are, oddly enough, collectivists and romantics, while the modern Russian entrepreneur is more of a pragmatic individualist,” says Anna Dvornikova of AMBAR. - In California, it is customary to help each other just like that. If you come here and, according to the Russian habit, start asking, “What will I have from this?”, They will not understand you. We are not looking for short-term benefits, but are focused on the long-term perspective. "

The Russian entrepreneurial community in California provides many examples of the validity of this thesis. Cases of mutual assistance, when some did something for free for others, are countless. Alex Freed recently made a demo of the technology for another entrepreneur to make it easier for him to find start-up capital and clients. It's not hard to find a lawyer to file a patent application for free or a programmer to get together for a free beta release of the website. There are also more ambitious examples. Biotech company BiPar Sciences raised $ 12.5 million in venture capital investment through several friendly conversations with the Russian community. Another company, DB Best, owes its very origin to network connections: its founders, Dmitry and Irena Balin and Igor Bekelman, met at one of the AMBAR conferences, decided to start a joint business there, and some time later successfully sold it to Microsoft. Max Levchin's PayPal could only arise where two strangers, having met at a lecture, immediately agree to create a joint business.

From communication with the heroes of our publication, I made the opinion that they fit well into the environment of Silicon Valley. If you will, they were naive enough for this.

“Here in Silicon Valley, there is a fundamental belief in culture in the fact that technologically gifted people, even without much business experience, simply with determination and faith in themselves together can make something huge out of nothing. In other parts of the world, this is not believed. Even in New York or Los Angeles, you have to come to work and curry favor there. Here you come, you dare, you are often scattered to pieces, but if you succeed, you can reach the sky. " For another domestic business observer, this confession of Max Levchin will cause a skeptical grin. But when Max was assembling his wagon, he, like the pioneers a hundred years before him, was naive enough in his desire to go where his desire to create his own success with his own hands would be shared by others. And he got there.
Irina Yapparova

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Not everyone knows what PayPal is and how to use it. The economy does not stand still. Many goods and services can be obtained on the Internet. For the safe execution of payments, for the convenience of all participants in business relations, this electronic payment system was specially developed.

What is PayPal?

The main thing in payments via the Internet is security guarantees. A person should know that his money will not go in an unknown direction, and he will not become a victim of fraud. PayPal payment system is a system through which you can send and receive financial transfers. Its main feature is to ensure the protection of the rights of sellers and buyers. The company is a kind of electronic bank, as it performs almost the same functions on the Internet.

PayPal - pros and cons

In the era of boom in technological development, such a system has become a necessity. Like any product, the PayPal service has both advantages and disadvantages. With the help of the payment system, you can even buy a car in a matter of seconds without leaving your home or pay utility bills. All this makes human life much easier. Let's consider the pros and cons of this system in more detail.

PayPal Benefits

PayPal wallet has a huge number of advantages, among which the following must be highlighted:

• to work with this system, you do not need additional software for a PC: you can manage your personal account from any browser and any PC;
• a high level of security is a huge plus: the identity of the client is carefully checked;
• additional security measure - binding credit card to a virtual account: this operation is needed to confirm the identity of the client;
• in case of an unsuccessful transaction with money, the user gets his money back.

Cons of PayPal

There are some unpleasant aspects to any system. PayPal account is no exception, because it has restrictions in work in the countries of the post-Soviet space. Until recently, it was difficult to withdraw money from an account in Russia. Increased security measures, on the one hand, are good, but the system automatically blocks accounts at the slightest suspicion, without warning or explanation. You cannot convert money into other electronic currencies.

What is PayPal and how do I use it?

PayPal has a very simple interface. Before starting work, you need to study the system in detail and register. After that, bind a real card to the virtual account. Many domestic sellers go international, and in Europe they have been freely using this payment system for a long time, therefore, the correct use of this device remains a pressing issue.

How do I register with PayPal?

To create a PayPal wallet, you first need to go through the registration process. You only need to provide real data. Otherwise, it is highly likely that your account will be blocked in the future. detailed instructions includes the following:

• specify the country, select the interface language;
• choose the type of account: corporate (for companies) or personal (for use by one person);
• then enter all personal data;
• at the end of registration, a confirmation letter will be sent to your e-mail.

How do I fund my PayPal account?

The second important question is how to top up PayPal. To avoid problems with replenishment, you need to link a credit card, then it will be easier to perform operations. You can replenish cash through the terminal, for this you need to create another and. And then we link the virtual card to the account. So, you can get money to your personal account in the system in two ways:

• transfer money from another PayPal account;
• receive payment for the offered goods or services.

How do I withdraw money from PayPal?

The pressing issue for many countries of the post-Soviet space was the withdrawal of money from PayPal. There is a way to withdraw money through another person. For example, you need to withdraw money and buy a product for him. Then you make an exchange: he pays you in cash, and you pay in the store for his goods from your account. This method allows you not to spend a single extra penny. Someone from your relatives or friends will become your intermediary for receiving money in this way. What is PayPal and what other withdrawal options are there?

1. Withdraw money at the office of the company. There are not so many such offices, so only some citizens will be so lucky, but in general, this is an ideal way with minimal commissions.
2. Withdraw money to a bank card. To begin with, you will need to withdraw small amounts of money twice and wait a couple of days. Withdraw via or Kiwi. In this case, these wallets will act as intermediaries. Operations will be carried out faster, but you will have to pay a commission.

How do I pay with PayPal?

Another important point of interest to users is how to pay through PayPal. If you need to buy a thing in an online store, and it is indicated there this way payment, you just need to select it and enter your username and email address. The money will be withdrawn from the card linked to the account or from the balance on the virtual account itself. Payment commission is paid by the recipient, not the sender.

What is PayPal and what it is for is very clear. From all of the above, it turns out that this is a system for paying for purchases and services, contributing to the development of economies in countries where it can be used to its fullest. The only drawback is the difficulty with the withdrawal of money in the post-Soviet space. Technologies are developing and, most likely, in a couple of years, and anywhere on Earth, it will be possible to fully use the capabilities of the system. In any case, using such a service is convenient and profitable.

Paying through PayPal for purchases in foreign stores is 100% protected from fraud. You can be sure that the money will not go to the side, and you will be left without a product. Customers' purchases are protected in such a way that until the buyer confirms the receipt of the goods, the money is not credited to the seller's account. In case of incidents, the buyer gets his money back. The company is registered in the states as a money transfer company. It performs all banking operations and is subject to a unified taxation system, and its work is regulated by all major laws.

The dynamically developing Internet network and e-commerce tools have brought a rather new concept into our life - electronic money. For another 10 years, few people could believe that it would be possible to buy something on the Internet, and at the same time pay with virtual currency. But now electronic money has become a part of our life. Yandex Money, Qiwi, Web Money - the name of these payment services no longer surprises many network users. The annual turnover is hundreds of millions of dollars, and this figure is growing inexorably.

Online shopping is convenient, profitable and fast. I think that no one will argue with this thesis. But not always domestic online stores can satisfy the needs of customers, and then you have to look towards the US and European trading floors. And here one problem arises - how to pay for the goods? A few of them work with Russian payment systems, but most prefer PayPal. Just today we will talk with you about what PayPal is, where this payment system came from, and why PayPal is so popular in Europe, the USA, and around the world.

PayPal - getting to know the new payment system

PayPal (translated from English. Means "a friend who helps you pay") to this moment is the largest and most famous operator of electronic payments in the world. Hundreds of millions of people shop online using PayPal every day. But how did it all start?

The company was founded in March 2000 by a group of students, among whom was Max Levchin, an immigrant from the USSR. From the very first months of work, PayPal began serving auctions held on eBay. In less than a few months, PayPal has already worked with a million auctions, inviting people to pay for services precisely through their payment system. Such rapid growth could not stand aside, and in 2002 an agreement was signed, according to which eBay inc. bought the rights to PayPal and since then over 50% of all eBay auctions are paid with PayPal.

In 2013, it was possible to use the services of the payment system in 198 countries of the world. At the same time, the company operates in 29 national currencies different countries... Not so long ago, the number of registered users of PayPal exceeded 200 million. The incredible pace of development of this payment system forced many competitors to close their companies and leave the market. PayPal is the undisputed leader of the world's online payments, and this leader is coming to us.

More recently, PayPal came to Russia, and many Russian sellers and buyers who prefer foreign online stores and auctions were able to legally withdraw and deposit money into their PayPal account. Previously, everything was done through third parties who asked for a large commission for cashing out. But now these "troubled" times are a thing of the past.

Due to the fact that PayPal opened its representative office in Russia, it became necessary to study the payment system in more detail, to understand its advantages over others, to understand the opportunities that open up through the use of PayPal.

PayPal: the reasons for its popularity and rapid development

Undoubtedly, PayPal has a number of advantages due to which 200 million users worldwide use this payment system. Among them are:

• Globality

The biggest advantage of PayPal is its globality. Wherever you are, having only access to the Internet, you can pay for goods in an online store from the USA or China in a matter of seconds. PayPal provides a wide range of options for its users, and regularly introduces new items to its service and functionality.

• Convenience and speed

Fast and easy to use is another PayPal trump card. All your data is already in the system, and you do not need to enter your full name, account numbers, confirmation codes every time. Everything is done as simply and quickly as possible so that the buyer can pay for the goods without bothering with the payment system.

• Safety

Security comes third on PayPal's list of benefits, but that doesn't mean it's third in importance. The company devotes the most time to security issues, because everyone understands that customers trust PayPal for hundreds of millions of dollars, and if a major leak occurs at least once, the credibility will be undermined once and for all. Who wants to use a payment system with which they can steal your money?

We can say that the company's management is obsessed with security, and is constantly introducing more and more new mechanisms for protecting personal data. Some users complain that there are a lot of protection methods, and they interfere with fast work and shopping. But let it be better for a person to endure 20 seconds of inconvenience than to lose everything that lies on electronic wallets.

PayPal also acts as an arbiter and resolves controversial financial issues arising among the users of the system. If a person proves that he was deceived, and he made a payment through PayPal, but did not receive the goods or the agreed services, then the company will return the amount spent from the fraudster's account. If there is no money in the account, then PayPal will compensate everything at its own expense.

• PayPal and eBay

The fourth advantage of the PayPal payment system is that about 90% of all auctions are not paid through it. This is not surprising, because the most popular auction in the world was bought by PayPal back in 2002, tying all payments to it.

Recently, the popularity of eBay, which has a representative office in 30 countries of the world, has been growing, and the number of PayPal users is increasing accordingly. The payment system is exploring new countries every day, conquering large markets. Recently PayPal started working in Russia, but faced great competition from Yandex Money, and especially Web Money.

• Official status

Although PayPal does not position itself as a bank, it has all the characteristics of a financial institution. In the United States, PayPal is regulated by the Banking Act. It is this factor that distinguishes PayPal from other payment systems that are not related to real money, and this limits their functionality when working with foreign internet shops. What does it mean? In PayPal, you have real dollars in your account (or the currency of your country), and in other payment systems, your wallets have title units that can be converted into currency. But the signs themselves are not currency, they are just numbers of no value.

PayPal, on the other hand, offers a powerful complex financial tool where all transactions are carried out with real, "real" money. You "link" a payment card (or several), a bank account to your PayPal account, you can automatically top up your balance in Paypal or withdraw money at any time, and even if you sell something, you can accept payments from customers directly from their payment cards (they don't need to have a PayPal account) and much, much more. By the way, PayPal works closely with the fiscal authorities, passing them information about the payments received by the user.

• Innovation

Everything that you are used to using in domestic payment systems was borrowed from abroad. PayPal is an innovator in the world of Internet payments, and it is this company that develops all the newest and most convenient chips.

PayPal was the first in the world to revolutionize mobile payments by offering its users instant payments using their mobile phones. With this service you can pay everywhere and always with only mobile phone... This technology has already been taken up by several large banks in Russia and Ukraine.

PayPal payment system: how to use?

There is a small minus here. In each country, PayPal offers its own set of services and features available to registered users. The residents of the United States have the widest opportunities, because it is there that all novelties and innovations are tested before they go out to the rest of the world. A lot of functionality is available for residents of Europe, Australia and China. Unfortunately, the set of functions for users from post-Soviet countries is minimal, or very close to that.

This is due, first of all, to the fact that goods from US and European stores are not so widely demanded in our country. Plus, the electronic payments market has been dominated by other giants for several years, which PayPal will be hard to oust from the Russian Internet.

How much does it cost to usePayPal?

Opening and using an account is absolutely free. There is no charge for sending money either. True, it should be noted that a small percentage can be taken by the bank in which the account is opened. As a rule, this is a commission for converting and sending currency. The one who receives the funds pays for PayPal services (unlike Web Money, where the one who sends the money pays).

We cannot name the exact amount of commissions, because it varies based on many factors: the type of account, the amount, the geographic location of the recipient and the sender, etc. You can find more details about the commission percentage on the official PayPal website.

Which to choosee-mail forPayPal

When registering with PayPal, you need to provide an address Email... We advise you not to use free services providing the ability to register the box. First of all, this is related to safety. If you want to be as sure as possible that your money will remain intact and safe, then open your mail on Gmail, or other reliable services.

PayPal(from English- "friend helping to pay") - the largest debit electronic payment system. Allows customers to pay bills and purchases, send and receive money transfers. Since October 2002, it has been a division of eBay. As of July 20, 2015, PayPal and eBay shares are sold separately on the market. The spin-off PayPal is currently valued higher on the stock market than its former parent company.

As of 2012, PayPal operates in 190 countries (although not all provide a full range of services), has more than 164 million registered users, and works with 24 national currencies.

When paying for purchases, the most important feature of PayPal is to provide security guarantees for both the buyer and the seller, see. For Russian PayPal users, the possibility of accepting payments to the account appeared only in October 2011, and at the moment, withdrawal of funds from the account for Russian users is possible to accounts in Russian banks. To maximize customer coverage and provide quality services, PayPal plans to start cooperation with Russian Post.

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History

PayPal was created by a group of students, including an emigrant from the USSR, Max Levchin, who later featured in the Facebook project.

PayPal Inc. founded in March 1998 as a result of a merger Confinity and X.com, in the very first months of its existence, the company began serving electronic auctions, so, by April 1998, more than 1 million auctions on eBay offered payment through the PayPal payment system.

In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay, and since then more than 50% of eBay transactions have been processed using PayPal. Most of PayPal's top competitors are shut down or sold out.

At the beginning of 2012, PayPal operates in 190 countries. As of September 2011, 24 types of world currencies were used in PayPal. In early 2015, eBay and PayPal became separate companies.

In 2015, PayPal launched the PayPal.me service, which allows you to create personal pages for accepting payments.

Offices

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California, on the North First Street campus. The company's operations center opened in 1999 and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. Since July PayPal has been operating in the European Union as a bank in Luxembourg. PayPal's European headquarters are in Luxembourg and the international headquarters is in Singapore. In the year, PayPal opened a technology center in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a development center software in Chennai (India) in 2007. In October 2007, PayPal opened a data service office on the north side of Austin, Texas, and also opened a second operations center in La Vista, Nebraska that same year. In 2011, they joined similar customer support operations based in Berlin, Germany; Chandler, Arizona; Dublin, Ireland; Omaha, Nebraska; and Shanghai, China; PayPal opened a second customer support center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and began the hiring process. In 2014, PayPal opened a new global operations center in Kuala Lumpur.

PayPal in different regions of the world

PayPal can be used by residents of over 200 countries around the world. Different countries have different conditions: Send only(the service package allows only the sending of foreign exchange funds, is valid in 97 countries), PayPal Zero(the service package assumes the possibility of crediting, depositing and withdrawing funds in foreign currency, but at the same time the user cannot keep the balance on the PayPal account, it is valid in 18 countries), SRW Send - Recieve - Withdrawal(the ability to enroll, deposit / withdraw funds, and the ability to keep a balance in the PayPal account in currency and transfer to the card when the user sees fit, operates in 41 countries), and Local Currency (SRW plus the ability to conduct transactions in local currency, 21 countries).

Japan

India

Since October 14, 2011, the transaction limit has been set at $ 3,000, there is no way for users to keep money in PayPal accounts; after sending or receiving funds will be debited from the card instantly or, if received, automatically credited to a bank account confirmed by PayPal. The so-called PayPal Zero system. (besides India works in 17 more countries)

Crimea

In January 2015, PayPal ceased operations in Crimea in accordance with international sanctions against Russia and Crimea.

Turkey

Eight years after the company first started operating in the country, Paypal ceased operations in Turkey on June 6, 2016, when Turkish financial regulator BDDK denied it a payment license. Regulatory authorities have demanded that Paypal data centers be located inside Turkey to facilitate compliance with government and court orders for content blocking and tax tracking. PayPal said the closure will affect tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of consumers in Turkey.

Palestine

PayPal is available in Israel, but not available in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians working in the West Bank or Gaza also cannot use PayPal, but Israelis living in West Bank settlements can. This discrepancy has prompted some tech companies to look for ways to change PayPal's policies.

Ukraine

Residents of Ukraine can use PayPal only in the following order: you can deposit funds into an account, but you cannot withdraw or withdraw funds, this is the so-called system Send only which operates in a total of 96 countries. The reason for this limitation is the limits on the part of the governments of these states. On March 2, 2016, a meeting was held in Warsaw between representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine and PayPal, during which it was stated that Ukraine does not exist in the development strategy of PayPal at the moment.

PayPal Here

In March 2012, PayPal introduced a new device called PayPal Here, which will allow you to pay by credit card through your mobile phone. Supported on iPhone and Android OS.

Bank status

In 2007, PayPal received a banking license in Luxembourg, which gave it the right to engage in banking activities throughout the European Union and the obligation to comply with the laws and regulations of the Financial Sector Supervision Commission.

Commissions

Before the official entry into the Russian market in September 2013 and the introduction of the RUB currency, the commission for transferring funds in Russia in US dollars was 3.4% + $ 0.30 USD. The same tariff is currently valid in Ukraine, Belarus and the Republic of Moldova after the launch of PayPal in these countries. In Russia, payments in any currency other than RUB between PayPal accounts registered in Russia are prohibited. Currently, the commission in Russia is 3.9% + 10 RUB. External payments from Russia, Ukraine, the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Moldova are allowed in any currency.

For Russia, the conversion of USD and any other currency when it is withdrawn in the form of rubles to a Russian bank account or when automatically converted into rubles upon receipt of money (if the user has configured so) is subject to a 2.5% commission to the current market rate at the time of the application. The cross-rate commission when paying or transferring money in a currency other than the payment currency is 4% to the market rate and is applied automatically at the time of payment by card or account balance. Withdrawing RUB to a bank account in its pure form, however, is free. Payments to Russian bank accounts come from the Moscow branch of Deutsche Bank within 3-7 business days.

The commission percentage can be reduced for sellers with a turnover of more than $ 3000 USD / month. The minimum possible commission is 2.4% and can be received with a turnover of $ 100,000 USD / month.

Summary table of standard PayPal commissions when accepting payments from different regions of the world for accounts registered in Russia. The main account currency is USD.

The amount of additional fixed commission (for example: $ 0.30 USD, € 0.35 EUR, £ 0.20 GBP, ¥ 40 JPY, 10 RUB, etc.) depends on the payment currency and is different for each currency. And the percentage depends on the country or region where the payment came from. This is important when selling on eBay, where PayPal's commission is added to the standard auction commission (10%). Thus, the maximum possible cumulative commission for an eBay auction using PayPal for worldwide sales for Russian accounts is 15.4% + $ 0.30 USD.

In world practice, on sites when accepting PayPal payments, it is often customary to designate the countries of Western Europe as Europe I and Eastern as Europe II. Therefore, it is better to check a more specific list of these countries directly on the PayPal website.

Commissions for Europe II countries, in the case of using a balance on a PayPal account or bank account, are lower compared to using a bank card. For transfers within the country, it is zero, for international transfers - 1%.

Criticism

In October 2011, the developers of the decentralized social network Diaspora announced a fundraising campaign. More than $ 45,000 was raised in a few days, but Paypal froze Diaspora's account without any explanation. On November 12, 2011, the main developer Ilya Zhitomirsky was found dead in his house. After a large number of complaints and threats of prosecution, the apology account was unfrozen, but no explanation was given.

In May 2014, Paypal blocked the account of the Rosuznik project, which was involved in the protection of activists detained at political rallies. The project tweeted: "I called PayPal, explained that he was closing our wallet, because he did not want to have risks associated with our activities."

On May 14, 2015, Vsevolod Chagaev, an activist of the Solidarity movement, announced on his Twitter account that Paypal had blocked his account intended to raise funds to print the Putin report. War. The payment system explained its position by the fact that it “does not provide an opportunity to use its system to collect donations for the activities of political parties and political goals in Russia”, despite the fact that its rules of use do not explicitly mention the collection of funds for political parties or political purposes.

In April 2015, PayPal stopped serving residents of Moscow streets, whose names are derived from Crimean place names. Later, the company checked the place name filters, and the sanctions against Muscovites were lifted.

Notes (edit)

1. PayPal spikes 7% as company teases future of Venmo, adds 6.6 million active users | VentureBeat | Commerce | by Harrison Weber
2. PayPal has become the world's most expensive electronic payment system: Internet: Internet and media: Lenta.ru

Now Max Levchin is known all over the world as an American web developer and programmer, one of the founders PayPal- the largest in the world electronic payment systems... Levchin is also vice president of development at the company Google.

But his attempts to achieve success in the field of programming were not always successful, writes Peoples.ru.

Max was born on July 15, 1975 in Kiev into a Jewish family. He was named after Maximilian in honor of the poet Maximiliana Voloshin, whose great admirer was Max's father, a poet and prose writer known in literary circles Rafael Zalmanovich Levchin... Mother Elvina Pinkhasovna Zeltsman is a multimedia artist, photographer, translator and programmer.

IN In 1991 the family emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Chicago, Illinois.

By the time of moving to the USA, Max already knew English well, and this helped him to enter University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied computer science. He graduated from university in 1997 and then moved to Silicon Valley.

Before PayPal Levchin launched 3 startups that did not bring him success and profit. The first big money was earned in 2002, when eBay acquired payment system PayPal for $ 1.5 billion. He, as one of the co-founders ( PayPal was founded in 1998 by Levchin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk), then owned 2.3% of the company, and he received about $ 34 million as a result of the takeover.

PayPal started its work at the end of 1999. The now known system was the sixth attempt, it turned out to be invulnerable to hacker attacks that ruined some other electronic payment systems. The system owes this to the talent of the programmer and mathematician Max Levchin, one of 6 people who stood at the origins of this project.

The project turned out to be more successful than its creators expected: in the very first months of its existence, the company Nokia invested $ 3.5 million in the project, Deutsche Bank- $ 1.5 million. Many other banks have invested in PayPal a total of over $ 20 million. Thanks to the growth of the internet user community shortly after launch PayPal already had about one and a half million customers in the database, and the daily turnover exceeded$ 2 million. It was then that the project decided to acquire eBay .

In 2004, Levchin launched his own startup Slide, the main development of which was a service for the convenient display of a large number of photos for users of the social network MySpace... Later Slide reoriented to create social services for MySpace and Facebook.

As a result, the photo hosting Levchin acquired Google, and Levchin himself became the vice president of the company.

In 2009, Max Levchin took 25th place in the list of the most successful businessmen under 40 years old, according to the publication. Fortune.

Levchin, he said, is obsessed with cycling. He closely follows various competitions.

When the entrepreneur first moved to Silicon Valley, he did not ride a bicycle, which was gathering dust in the garage. After sale PayPal Levchin gained extra weight and constantly complained to his girlfriend, and now his wife Nelly, about boredom. Then the girl invited him to go for a drive - according to her, it would help put his brains in order.

Levchin decided that he was ready to take up the bike only a few months later. Memories interfered with the entrepreneur - Max was used to the fact that cycling was always what he was really good at. Levchin was worried that, due to his excess weight, he might not be able to ride quickly or climb a high mountain.

Founder PayPal decided to "return" by attending several group trainings. He found that he coped with interval stationary cycling quite well - better than most people who attended classes - and also did not feel very short of breath and fatigue. Then he realized that he could return to the road.

“Every couple of years I promise myself to try to participate in the races - but the restoration of proper form took longer than I expected,” Levchin admitted.