I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of
PayPal as it has more than its fair share of security issues, but I occasionally use it as it is convenient. Nevertheless, in the past few days I've noticed that several 'major' online stores have added PayPal as a payment option. Take for example
HP or
Native Instruments. Several international online retailers (e.g.
Expansys or
Pixmania), have had a PayPal payment option for a long time and many smaller retailers take advantage of the company's streamlined services.
I am not sure what the demographics of the service's users are, but I'm quite certain that users in several European countries are not really big customers of PayPal. My personal experience with it has been generally good, with the exception of one time when I tried using it for a relatively large amount and ended up having my card deactivated for a few days --- banks don't seem to like PayPal much. Yet its adoption as a payment option in the online stores of large corporations may signify that it's becoming an accepted alternative to bank payment processors, a manifestation perhaps of the e-currency theories of the 1990s. What do you think?
