PayPal looks to Asia for growth, no IPO plan

Singapore, Nov 6: PayPal, a unit of auction Web site eBay Inc , will look to grow its Asian business by wooing online merchants to provide its payment service, an executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

The firm expects revenue from international markets, which made up 43 percent of its third-quarter revenue, to overtake its North American market in 2008.

''We do see Asia as a big growing market for us for a number of years to come,'' Chief Technology Officer Scott Thompson told the sources, at the sidelines of PayPal's launch of its international headquarters in Singapore.

PayPal, which launched in March a Japanese version of its website, said it will look to provide Asian Web sites with its payment service, which he said could help online firms such as those in China looking to sell overseas.

Thompson said the firm had no plans to list in an initial public offering, or break away from its parent firm, but will continue to invest in countries in which it already has a strong presence, such as Australia and India.

''I don't think we have any plans to break apart this relationship (with eBay),'' said Thompson.

''Our off-eBay business in Australia is actually quite large and growing rapidly,'' Thompson said, adding that four of the five top e-commerce Australian websites accepted PayPal as a method of payment.

The firm will also expand its customer base by providing different language solutions to its customers, rather than setting up local offices.

PayPal, which has more than 164 million accounts in 190 markets globally, said in August it would offer credit financing with General Electric Co's GE Money Bank in a bid to win new users and improve business for its merchants.

But it is facing increased competition from Google Inc's Checkout, which has made a concerted effort to win over businesses that sell on eBay.

''We love competition from the big guys and from the small guys. The benefit of competition is that we will be better at the end of the game,'' Thompson said.

Reuters>