When was PayPal founded

PayPal was founded in December 1998, when it started life as a company called Confinity rather than under the PayPal name.

The business was set up by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek. The PayPal brand came later, after the company launched its payment product and combined with another online finance startup.

• December 1998: Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek established Confinity, the company that went on to become PayPal.
• 1999: The first version of the PayPal electronic payment system was released to users.
• March 2000: Confinity merged with X.com, an online bank that Elon Musk had founded in 1999.
• 2001: The combined company formally changed its name to PayPal.
• 2002: eBay acquired PayPal.

For a quick PayPal overview, the useful point is that the founding date and the name change are separate events: the company dates from late 1998, while the PayPal name was adopted as the official company name in 2001.

Some sources give 1998 as the founding year without a month, and others give December 1998. Both refer to the creation of Confinity by the same three founders.