DR. ROHAN R. MAHADEVAN CEO, PayPal Pte Ltd. Senior Vice President, PayPal Asia Pacific

PAYPAL HOLDINGS, INC.

Global technology platform and digital payments leader PayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:PYPL) has come to town stronger as it boosts partnerships for greater impact in its second fastest market in southeast Asia.

No less than Dr. Rohan R. Mahadevan, CEO of PayPal Pte Ltd. and senior vice president PayPal Asia Pacific, came over for the first time to show the company’s commitment to empower Filipino individuals and entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams.

THE COMPANY

Fueled by a fundamental belief that having access to financial services creates opportunity, PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services and empowering people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy.

Its open digital payments platform gives PayPal’s nearly 200 million active account holders the confidence to connect and transact in new and powerful ways, whether they are online, on a mobile device, in an app, or in person. Through a combination of technological innovation and strategic partnerships, PayPal creates better ways to manage and move money, and offers choice and flexibility when sending payments, paying or getting paid.

PayPal offers what appears to be an amazing suite of services and capabilities. PayPal is available in more than 200 markets around the world. The PayPal platform, including Braintree, Venmo and Xoom, enables consumers and merchants to receive money in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds in 56 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies.

For transaction to be completed, transacting parties – sender and receiver – must have PayPal account.

Each account is personalized and secure. The user need not expose himself to giving out his credit card information every time he makes a transaction because the security code is kept with PayPal.

All the information like the customer’s shipping address will go into the merchant website but not the customer’s credit card information.

“This is because security is a big value proposition on our part. You never have to share your credit card information,” he adds.

“If you lose your phone, your information is still in the PayPal wallet and the information is well secured because it is not stored on the phone but on the cloud.”

Of course, there are efforts to get into the system of PayPal but PayPal is always on their toes to prevent this kind of attacks. It has put more efforts to prevent and stop the occurrence of hacking and frauds into its system. It takes effort in ensuring the credibility of its merchants.

According to Rohan, PayPal invests in a risk management company with hundreds of engineers and scientists and operating technologies people that look and monitor transparency accounts every single day.

“We identify merchants who may have fraudulent activities and shut them down because we have to protect consumers. We do all these to make us the safest and most secure digital payment platform. We see more demand now and is just starting to explode,” he adds.

“If something happens to your order, like it was not delivered, you can call PayPal and PayPal will pay for that. We will take care of you,” says Rohan.

As a result, entrepreneurs prefer PayPal because it offers three value propositions: security, a genuine care for its customers, and speed and convenience.

GROWTH PayPal has been posting tremendous growth over the years. It reported $354 billion in total payment volume for fiscal year 2016. When compared to the latest eMarketer research which put e-commerce payment volume at $1.915 trillion in 2016, this means that PayPal processed 18 percent of the global ecommerce payment volume.

For its financial guidance for full year 2017, PayPal expects revenue to grow 15-17 percent at current spot rates and 17-19 percent on an FX-neutral basis, to a range of $12.450 - $12.650 billion. Globally, PayPal employs approximately 17,000.

Last year, PayPal’s revenue went up 21 percent year on year to $10.84 billion. All the world’s big merchants are already onboard PayPal’s platform.

PayPal does not breakdown its revenue steam, but the Philippines is its second fastest growing market in southeast Asia.

The best thing is there is no fee to use PayPal to purchase goods or services.

However, if you receive money for goods or services (such as from selling an item on eBay), the fee for each transaction is 2.9 percent plus $0.30 of the amount you receive. The rate keeps going down as transaction volume increases.

“We are very competitive and our rates are all published,” adds Rohan.

In terms of competition, PayPal does not have a real direct competitor. It gets competition in the business segments they operate, but not in its entire breadth of service.

“We’ve grown and developed our capability and with that more and more consumers are joining our network making it more valuable,” says Rohan.

FREELANCERS The kind of merchants and customers that tap into the PayPal platform varies from country to country due to different skills set.

“Vietnam and Thailand have different skills from India, which is more technical. The Philippine freelancers are mostly in the virtual assistance, transcription and designs while Brazil is a very different discussion,” says Rohan.

In the Philippines, PayPal has been successful in offering its services to freelancers. There are more than 1.5 million freelancers in the Philippines providing services for designs and transcriptions.

“I’ve met a few freelancers here and they are very young from 20 to 25 years old. Several fantastic stories that really touch home,” says Rohan.

One designer with very impressive designs signed up with PayPal in 2008 and has now 18 people, while a mother of four is now making 4 times as much by doing work by herself than working in the call center. There was one blogger with a very inspiring story.

“Without PayPal they would not be able to receive money faster and purse their dreams and be independent,” says Rohan.

To the freelancers, having to use PayPal is very important because for a bank to accept credit card payment, they will require some processes at the bank. But with PayPal, you can accept and send payments all over the world in just 30 seconds.

“With only two clicks, you can already send and receive. It is that fast that is why people want to use us. Commerce happens a lot faster now so the velocity of trade also goes faster,” he adds. This is because more and more people are connected to the Internet.

The Philippine freelancing market alone is estimated at 1.5 million and growing.

“We want to have all the 1.5 million freelancers out in the rural areas and other merchants,” says Rohan, citing thousands of merchants in Cebu and other areas that have yet to be on the PayPal platform.

PayPal is trying to address the freelancers’ potential because there are lots of skills in the country that need to be harnessed by providing them with secure, fast and convenient way to transact payments than going to the bank or wire transfer.

“Whether it is wire transfer or cash pick up, it will go from place to another and there is no insurance on that but PayPal provides the security so lots of people are using us and freelancers’ revenues are growing really quickly,” he adds.

“We want all of them on PayPal so they can benefit more. We can help as we are partnering with big companies in the country. Actually, we help accelerate their growth and bring the capabilities to more freelancers.”

“We are allowing them to actually grow because the lifeblood of an entrepreneur is money because how can you underwrite and get more clients if you have no money. So really, this is unleashing entrepreneurship in the Philippines,” he adds.

“In this age, convenience and speed are very important,” he adds noting there is no longer a distinction between offline and online.

The smartphone has become a wallet and that has become a big part of people’s everyday life. It is now moving from e-commerce to mobile commerce with the digitization of cash. The potential is just enormous.

To tap the huge overseas Filipino workers, whose remittances have fueled this country’s economic growth, PayPal is now offering a new service with its acquisition of Xoom.

Because PayPal is a technology company, Rohan said they are constantly figuring out new products and services.

PARTNERSHIPS

To boost its presence in the Philippines, PayPal has partnered with PayMaya Philippines, formerly Smart e-Money, Inc.

Recently, PayPal and GCash announced their collaboration to provide freelancers and businesses with a faster and more convenient way to withdraw their PayPal funds. PayPal and GCash put innovative financial solution in the hands of MSME business owners and freelancers. This collaboration between GCash, an internationally acclaimed micro payment service provided by Globe, and PayPal, allows micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and freelancers to transfer and withdraw their available PayPal balance with zero withdrawal fees.

MSME business owners and freelancers can now transfer and withdraw their PayPal funds at no additional charge by simply linking their PayPal accounts to their GCash accounts. Funds can then be withdrawn from their GCash account within a day.

Globe Telecom’s mobile wallet service GCash complements PayPal’s global reach by providing MSMEs and freelancers the platform to receive payment from overseas and withdraw funds locally via a MasterCard branded card. The collaboration between GCash and PayPal thus provides an efficient solution customized to place more financial control into the hands of MSME business owners and freelancers by providing quicker access to their cash flow and capital.

Traditionally, MSME business owners and freelancers who have transferred their PayPal funds to their bank accounts may only be able to withdraw their funds after several days. They may also be charged corresponding transfer and withdrawal fees. Through this partnership, customers will be able to transfer their available PayPal balance at zero withdrawal fees and gain access to their funds within 24 hours.

“PayPal has always been a strong supporter of freelancers and MSMEs. We help them gain access to over 200 markets via our global platform, and we provide them with a truly global, end-toend solution by collaborating with strong local payment partners such as GCash. This solution with GCash will provide our Filipino customers with a quicker and more convenient way to withdraw and utilize payments received from overseas,” says Rohan.

By linking their PayPal account to their GCash account, users are now able to access their balances through the GCash app. Users can then transfer their available PayPal balance to their GCash account and withdraw it through their GCash MasterCard at over 20,000 BancNet ATMs located across the Philippines and over 12,000 Globe Partner Outlets (GPOs) nationwide within the same day.

As part of the collaboration, in the upcoming weeks GCash and PayPal will be giving away free GCash MasterCards to customers who make a funds transfer from their PayPal account to their GCash account. To redeem the free GCash MasterCard, users will need to go to GCash stations within select SM outlets.

GCash can be used to buy prepaid load, pay bills, send money, make donations, shop online, and even purchase goods without the need to bring any cash.

“We are very bullish in the Philippines,” he adds. Partnership with a local telco is also one way to bridge cultural differences and in the way people transact business.

ROCKET SCIENCE

Rohan, an American of Indian descent, has an interesting career having been once involved with the world of rocket science.

Before he joined PayPal in 2004, Rohan started his own start-up where he was founder and CEO of Aftermind, Inc., a software company in the aftermarket protection industry. But before that, Rohan was a postdoctoral scientist at Cambridge University, England. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD from Harvard University in the field of astrophysics.

The big shift from science to the world of consumerism may be a big jump, but Rohan said what is important is how one is able to align and make a difference in the lives of people on a day to day basis.

Each branch of discipline has taught him skills set enabling him to prioritize and strategize in solving problems. From science, he went into a start-up consumer business. When he joined PayPal, it was still relatively young company processing $17 billion worth of transactions but it grew very rapidly.

“I could do both again, fantastic experience. But at the end of the day it is people that drive growth,” says Rohan noting that one of his colleagues before won a Nobel Prize in 2011 making it fantastic to be associated with them in the same manner now at PayPal where he is associated with another set of fantastic people.

VISIONARY

Rohan held various roles at PayPal as vice president of Global Cross Border Trade and VP for Latin America. He was responsible in driving growth wherever he was assigned.

Now, as Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific, Rohan provides strategic direction for one of the company’s fastestgrowing regions covering many of the largest commerce markets in the world, including Australia, Greater China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.

Based in Singapore, he is responsible for increasing the company’s presence and local payment capabilities to capitalize on the explosive growth of e-commerce and m-commerce across all the markets in Asia Pacific. His deep knowledge of PayPal’s products and capabilities drives the company vision of enabling secure payments anytime, anywhere and any way for millions of APAC consumers.

Whether he is into rocket science or promoting PayPal to merchants and consumers, Rohan said that a leader must be a visionary.

“As a leader, you need to be a visionary, hire the right people and help them execute. At the end of the day, a manager should be able to inspire people. Leadership does not happen at work, it is who you are as a person,” says Rohan.

Rohan, whose spare time is mostly spent for family bonding, is now into meditation, which he said allows him to concentrate better, become more focus to come up with what he believes as the right thing to do instead of being reactionary.

“Meditation brings clarity and focus on every aspect of life,” he says.

With leaders like Rohan, PayPal is bound for even greater future.