PayPal Says Keen to Expand Business in India

After its separation from e-commerce major eBay, digital payments company PayPal on Tuesday said it is now free to partner with its founder's competitors and is keen to expand in India.

"It will make sense for us to tie up with all merchants... we'll collaborate with all disruptors," PayPal country manager and managing director Vikram Narayan told reporters in Mumbai.

He said the company that has been doing only cross-border work out of the country, which includes helping local merchants with collection of export payments and international cards for travellers, is focusing on opportunities in the domestic market as well.

The company re-listed on the American bourses on Monday, separating from eBay. Citing company policies which prohibit from speaking on a particular country, Narayan did not disclose any of the focus areas or its plans at the specially called press meet.

He also refused to share the number of merchants in Mumbai using PayPal or the number of active users who use its facility for shopping on foreign e-commerce sites.

Later in the evening, a company spokesperson shared there was 28 percent growth in exports by PayPal's registered merchants in 2013 over 2012. It, however, did not mention the absolute figure. PayPal elaborated that merchants in India saw double-digit growth for top online export corridors; US (27 percent), UK (19 percent), Australia (27 percent), Canada (16 percent), and Israel (31 percent) from 2012 to 2013.

Last year, the company created a team to focus on domestic opportunities and employs 1,300 people in the country, with a bulk of them based in development centres in Chennai and Bengaluru, Narayan said, adding that it also has an office in Mumbai which co-ordinates with RBI.

Written with inputs from PTI