News: 1716927312

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

PayPal is planning an ad network built off your purchase history

(2024/05/28)


PayPal will use data from billions of customer transactions to supercharge its nascent ad business.

And it sounds as though it'll work like this: PayPal will provide ways for businesses to advertise online – on websites and in apps – and use the information PayPal knows about people – their transactions, purchasing histories, etc – to target them specifically.

The new PayPal Ads group is headed by recent hire Mark Grether, a senior vice president and GM at PayPal, who says the budding advertising operation will "help make merchants smarter to sell more products and services effectively, as well as enable consumers to discover more of what they love." But, his [1]reported statement doesn't really dwell on the fact that it will be using customer data, including purchase history, to pull this off.

[2]

For a sense of potential scope, consider this: In 2023, PayPal processed around 25 billion transactions, and has been growing its volume steadily year over year. In addition to the main PayPal platform, it also operates cash transfer app Venmo and Honey, a browser extension designed to find deals online.

[3]

"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 is quoted as saying. The report also mentions that Venmo will see fewer ads served in order to not drive off its younger users.

[4]Rights warriors claim online ad auction data a danger to national security

[5]In defence of online ads: The 'net ain't free and you ain't paying

[6]Police use of PayPal records under fire

[7]Germany probes PayPal over cartel claims

AI is also playing a part in PayPal Ads via its Advanced Offers Platform, which boasts "nearly half a trillion dollars of transaction data analyzed with AI." Advanced Offers was introduced back in January, it allows businesses to offer discounts and other promotions to users based on their spending histories, and is now reportedly going through a trial run at eBay.

The business of delivering the right ads to the right users is becoming increasingly reliant on collecting user data via different sources, and can be so robust that, for example, checking out audio books at the library can result in [8]different ads being shown almost immediately. PayPal's data on users' purchases and other transactions, combined with AI, might prove to be great at advertising, though probably to the consternation and frustration of recipients. ®

Get our [9]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-is-planning-an-ad-business-using-data-on-its-millions-of-shoppers-cc5e0625

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZlZUAZQZv8RqBP@7wxqTLwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZlZUAZQZv8RqBP@7wxqTLwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/16/online_ad_auction_data_risks/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/08/in_defence_of_online_ads/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/06/cop_city_paypal/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/24/german_regulators_target_paypal_for/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/18/mystery_of_the_targeted_mobile_ads/

[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/


The man with a spanner

And how legal is this in the EU?

Hopefully his particular child can be aborted prematurly.

You just bought a kettle...

Bendacious

You just bought a kettle, that must mean you want to see adverts for kettles. I've been told by people who see adverts that this is often how it works.

Is there any proof that targeted advertising works any better than a blanket campaign? People find it creepy, click-fraud is rampant, anti-tracking technology and legislation is increasing, might be a bad time to get into this field.

Re: You just bought a kettle...

cornetman

This is my experience even within just the likes of AliExpress. I mean, if I buy something, what's the likelihood I'm going to immediately buy the same thing again? Very low I would have thought.

Re: You just bought a kettle...

Anonymous Coward

After buying a spatula from Amazon 20 years ago I have since become an Avant-garde collector of the finest spatulas. I have a collection of at least 200. Only 2 of them are still usable to be fair.

Re: You just bought a kettle...

The man with a spanner

I can just about inderstand - you have just bought a kettle, perhaps you would like a toaster to go with it.

I struggle, however, with - you have just bought a kango hammer, perhaps you would like a Russian bride.

Re: You just bought a kettle...

zimzam

I don't know about studies but I remember that Ebay disabled their Google adverts for 3 months a while ago and found there was basically no difference in sales.

Re: You just bought a kettle...

zimzam

Here's an article on it.

https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-here-its-called-online-advertising/13228924500-22d5fd24

Remind me : Musk has been thrown out of PayPal, right ?

Pascal Monett

So who are the assholes who think this is a good idea ?

Thank God my PayPal account is defunct.

Re: Remind me : Musk has been thrown out of PayPal, right ?

marknzl

They can still sell your historical transaction data, or access to it, or however they try to play down the breach in privacy and trust.

I've just requested my PayPal account be closed and my data deleted. I honestly feel a bit betrayed and at the same time disappointed by my own naivety.

Won't get much out of me

Will Godfrey

The only reason I have a paypal account is for buying tracks from musos on bandcamp.

This should be illegal

alain williams

There should be a firewall between payment processing any any other part of the business.

This is rather like an ISP selling information about which web sites you visit.

The basis for this is not solid.

Tron

If I've just bought a washing machine, I don't need to see adverts for a dozen more.

Ebay's logging of submitted searches is far more accurate.

But I don't actually care. They can process data on my purchases as much as they want, to direct ads. It really doesn't bother me. I don't consider my privacy to be impinged. It shouldn't bother other people on here either, as most of them run ad blockers anyway.

An invasion of privacy? That would be having my e-mail address and phone number appear on parcels sent to me. That's stipulated by governments, not tech companies. If you want to be a stalker, delivering parcels is probably your best career option.

Heisenberg might have been here.