PayPal is building an ad network based on your Venmo data

PayPal is launching an advertising platform built on a trove of customer transaction data. The company’s new advertising business will encompass purchase information and customer spending habits from PayPal and its sister app Venmo, according to The Wall Street Journal.

PayPal has brought on Mark Grether, the former vice president and general manager of Uber Advertising, to lead its advertising business. “If you’re someone who’s buying products on the web, we know who is buying the products where, and we can leverage the data,” Grether said in a statement to the WSJ. He also said that PayPal will receive shopping data from customers using its credit card in stores.

A PayPal spokesperson tells the WSJ that the company will collect data from customers by default while also offering the ability to opt out. When asked about the kinds of data PayPal will collect, spokesperson Taylor Watson told The Verge that the advertising platform is still in “early stages” and that the company doesn’t have “definitive answers” yet. “Alongside the advertising business, PayPal will build transparent, easy-to-use privacy controls,” Watson says.

As part of its most recent earnings report, PayPal revealed that it processed 6.5 million transactions from 427 million customers in the first quarter of 2024. PayPal says the new platform will help merchants “sell more products and services effectively” while surfacing relevant products to customers. Earlier this year, PayPal showed off its advanced offers platform, which uses AI to analyze customer purchases and help merchants create personalized offers.