SAN JOSE, Calif.—PayPal is taking its first steps toward developing and registering an investment platform within PayPal called Invest at PayPal, and it could launch next year, Nasdaq is reporting.
“Rival Square added stock trading, including fractional share trading, to its app in 2019, taking on the popular brokerage app Robinhood. Now, PayPal is ready to follow in Square’s footsteps again,” Nasdaq said.
Nasdaq noted PayPal has the advantage of serving more than 400-million active accounts, most of which have linked their bank account information to the platform already.
“By comparison, Robinhood reports having just 21 million active accounts, and Cash App has about 40 million users,” stated Nasdaq. “That makes PayPal a significant threat to Robinhood as the former is also looking to attract first-time investors. You’re much more likely to use the app already installed on your phone (PayPal) than you are to download and set up a whole new account (Robinhood).”