PayPal Survived the Dot-Com Bubble and Swept the Digital Financial Services Industry

Its founders also kept innovating with future tech projects

In retrospect, it seems like the most obvious idea in the world. In 1998, as the dot-com bubble had inflated nearly to its bursting point, online merchants such as Boo.com, Kozmo.com and Pets.com were multiplying like rabbits. Everyone was talking about a future when Americans would do all their shopping online. Yet strangely, almost nobody was thinking about a fast and secure way to pay for all of those purchases electronically.

A notable exception was an attorney and early web investor named Peter

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 5, 2020, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.