Last week, eBay Inc. announced that David Marcus, PayPal’s former Vice President of Mobile, is now President of PayPal, replacing Scott Thompson. Already a member of PayPal's executive management team, Marcus was previously CEO and founder of Zong, the leading provider of mobile payments, acquired by eBay Inc. in Aug. 2011. Marcus is a serial entrepreneur who hails from Europe originally, as he discusses in a video interview posted on the eBay Ink blog.
“I’ve always been innovating out on the edge of mobile technology and payments,” Marcus said. “I’m very focused on innovation, on product and on consumer experiences.”
eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe echoed these themes in a post on The PayPal Blog announcing Marcus’ new appointment. “David is going to lead PayPal with that ‘founder’s perspective,’ to bring start-up energy to PayPal’s unmatched global reach and digital payment capabilities,” Donahoe said. “With David at the helm, we will have an even deeper commitment at PayPal, and across eBay Inc., to be a leading technology-driven and customer-focused product innovation company.”
“We’ll continue to focus on accelerating product innovation, driving consumer engagement and creating a world where paying anytime, anywhere and any way is synonymous with PayPal,” Donahoe said.
In the video interview, Marcus noted that PayPal’s increasing focus on digital goods, and the new PayPal Here initiative, hold great promise for the company. PayPal Here includes a free app and a fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader, allowing merchants of all sizes to process PayPal payments.
“PayPal Here launched about two weeks ago, and we’ve got tremendous demand for this product already — beyond our expectations,” Marcus noted. “Merchants are responding really, really well, and this has provided a glimpse into the unbelievable capabilities that this company has. We have an amazing global platform, and we managed to create this new product in seven months.”