Earlier today,
PayPal shared the financial results from our recently completed
fourth fiscal quarter, which also concludes our first full year as an independent company. I am proud of our accomplishments this past year and of the entire PayPal team for working tirelessly to reinvent payments for our customers. In the last 12 months, PayPal has delivered on our financial commitments, rolled out innovative new products that enhanced the value we deliver to customers, and forged strategic partnerships that are expanding our market opportunity and transforming our industry.
And yet that is only a part of the PayPal story. If you follow our company closely, then you know that PayPal has a mission that extends beyond the numbers. We want to use our platform, our legacy and trusted brand, and our network of strategic partners to democratize financial services so that more people around the world can have access to simple, secure, and affordable financial tools. We deeply believe that access to these tools can unlock opportunity and improve people’s lives.
We have almost 200 million active customer accounts on our platform. For consumers, we’re using the mobile technology that is central to their day-to-day lives to deliver services and capabilities that make it easier, safer, and more convenient to manage their money and improve their financial health. For merchants, we’re providing a flexible and powerful payment platform that will help them deepen the relationships they enjoy with their customers through commerce experiences that are simpler, more personal, and more convenient.
These are lofty goals. They are not easy to pursue, and they are not easy to measure. Which brings me back to our financials. Delivering on our financial commitments can actually be a key barometer for how are doing against our overall mission because we know that when our customers do well, PayPal does well.
Here are a few numbers from our fourth quarter results that help drive that point:
- Payment Volume: The total amount of money that flowed through our payments platform was $99.3 billion, an increase of 25% on a currency neutral basis over the same period last year
- Customer Accounts: We added 5.4 million active customer accounts, bringing us to 197 million consumer and merchant accounts transacting on our global platform.
- Customer Engagement: Transactions per active account reached 31, an increase from 27 at the start of the year.
- Mobile Payments:We processed $31 billion in mobile payments in the quarter and more than $100 billion mobile payments throughout 2016, both record amounts for PayPal. It’s exciting that more than half of our active account base made a payment on PayPal using a mobile device over the last 12 months.
One more set of numbers to consider, and an example of our ability to deliver against our mission, is the impact that PayPal has on charitable giving. Last quarter, 8 million PayPal customers in 181 countries gave nearly $1 billion to more than 280,000 worthy causes. We also helped charities raise a record-breaking $48 million on Giving Tuesday alone. When you connect passionate people together on a powerful platform then magic can truly happen. In 2016, over $7 billion was given to charity through the PayPal platform!
As an independent company, we have the opportunity to define a unique, clear, and meaningful mission for our company. This mission includes our commitment to have a positive impact on individuals, families, and communities around the world by making it easier and less expensive for people to manage and move their money to achieve the dreams. I’m confident this commitment will continue to drive our passion for many years to come.