Emma Cain

ucla. london. colorado

[Emma Cain @eicain]

So thrilled to have signed to this wonderful place, excited to see what is in store! Thank you for everything @MillfieldSwim #gobru

[Crossroads @Dr_Crossroads]

$PYPL Incremental PayPal improvements are adding up. I know not everyone is a fan of Alex Chriss. Say what you will: he executes.

The pace of implementation and innovation is very different than under the prior regime.

[Stock Market Nerd @StockMarketNerd]

$PYPL Conference Highlights

PayPal’s new CEO Alex Chriss took to the stage today to talk through PayPal product innovation. The chat was organized into 6 announcements. Here were the highlights:

1) New PayPal Checkout

PayPal is accelerating efforts to go password-less. It’s pushing harder to remove as much friction and as many clicks as it can from checkout. Data entry requirements and latency mean lower conversion. PayPal’s new checkout flow allows for profiles to log in with just a face or a fingerprint. After that, they can enjoy 1 click checkout and 50% lower time to completion. This brings PayPal’s checkout ease up to par with others in the space. It needed to get to single click.

The old PayPal team took years to implement new checkout flows. They structured the flows in ways that required manual, painful, custom builds for all large merchants. It rolled out these builds a few at a time each quarter. Implementations took years. That’s just way too slow, and this is a sign that the dawdling and irrationality is over.

2) "Fastlane" by PayPal

PayPal is also revamping guest checkout through a new product called “Fastlane.” To me, this sounds like an iteration of single sign on (SSO). When a customer uses PayPal, the company will be able to recognize the buyer upon returning to its other tens of millions of merchants. It will not require another log in or verification as it will know who you are. This will remove manual data entry requirements for guest checkout and eliminate the need to maintain disparate merchant accounts. It will reduce the costly 50% abandoned cart rate that e-commerce as a whole deals with. Info can now be saved for future usage at any other PayPal merchant with a single click of a button to opt in. This is the company finally leveraging the unique benefit of its massive merchant network. It can allow its merchant network to offer the convenience of rapid checkout without needing to already have that customer in their ecosystem. That matters especially for the little guys. Notably, Fastlane is cutting guest checkout time for PayPal customers by 40%. BigCommerce is now using Fastlane and is enjoying significant conversion advantages early on.

3 & 4) Smart Receipts & The Advanced Offers Platform

Why not turn receipts into a marketing engine? That’s now the plan for PayPal. PayPal’s customer receipts now come with compelling cash back offers for customers. Importantly, PayPal uses its deep customer data profiles (and dataset representing 25% of e-commerce) to ensure these offers are hyper-relevant. Merchants only pay for conversion, not impressions, to allow businesses to turn first time shoppers into fiercely loyal customers. This also means that merchants don’t need large marketing budgets to enjoy the powerful customer acquisition lever. They pay as they earn. Early on, these “smart receipts” have a 45% email open rate.

Along the lines of using its vast 1st party dataset to offer unique value (noticing a theme?), it will roll out the “PayPal Advanced Offers Platform” in the coming months. This will allow merchants to openly utilize PayPal’s massive customer base to target promotions and offers more precisely. Importantly, only customers who have opted into data sharing are eligible for data usage. Anything PayPal can do to create value from its scale is good news for shareholders. It not only means happier customers, but more differentiation vs. smaller competition.

5) New Consumer App

PayPal is leaning heavily into customer savings amid the high inflation environment. It’s adding access to hundreds of cash back offers from large brands (some pictured below). These offers can be accessed with a single click and auto-implemented on a merchant’s site when checking out through PayPal. This program is called the “PayPal Cash Pass.”

The service intelligently surfaces deals based on broad customer data profiles (like with the other announcements) to bolster relevance. This can be used in tandem with its 3% cash-back debit card for even more customer value; those rewards can also be easily placed in its high yield savings account for 4.3% annual yield.

6) Venmo Business Profile Upgrade

Venmo is by far the most active social feed in financial services. PayPal has not been taking advantage. It allows merchants to use business profiles to make payment easier, but hasn’t done much else to harvest the app’s value. It’s upgrading Venmo Business Profiles to do just that. Now, these profiles can be easily subscribed to on the feeds to more seamlessly track offers and events. Friends can now see what merchant you shopped at (with your permission) and can actually subscribe to any merchant that looks interesting. It’s one thing to tell someone that “this business is cool;” voting with a wallet is more powerful. This makes that wallet voting more visible on Venmo.

PayPal is also allowing Business Profiles to use Venmo for the growth engine it should have always been. They can use PayPal’s vast dataset (again… key theme) to identify local, highly relevant customers to tailor promotions to. This can happen on a customer by customer basis. So? Better merchant visibility paired with a more actionable means to incentivize customer purchasing. That combo should morph Venmo into the local commerce player that it needs to become… finally.

7) 30,000 Ft view

Some are going to poke fun at this event. They’re going to say it doesn’t “shock the world.” I’d respond by telling them to actually listen to Chriss’s CNBC interview from last week. While shock the world was aggressive language, it was in reference to the years ahead… not today. Like I said, we need to give the new team time to show what they can do. My expectations for Q4 are very low and build materially throughout 2024.

Today represents step one. It represents a foundation and a depiction of focus for PayPal’s future roadmap. While nothing in here is all that sexy, it’s all needed. It finally mines the value that PayPal’s gigantic two-sided network can provide. It leverages the ability to offer network-level innovation and value that smaller players cannot possibly match. It focuses on what PayPal does best and rightfully ignores all of the other product distractions from the free money era.

Today is a baby step… but it is a baby step in the right direction. Now go execute.

[PayPal @PayPal]

Ready to see how PayPal is revolutionizing commerce? Tune in tomorrow, Thu., 1/25 at 9:30 am. PT, as PayPal President & CEO Alex Chriss unveils an exclusive preview of the first innovations PayPal & Venmo are bringing to market this year. https://t.co/yer0qGAUVB #PayPalFirstLook

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

Top 1000 universities ranking:

1. 🇺🇸 Harvard
2. 🇺🇸 MIT
3. 🇺🇸 Stanford
4. 🇺🇸 Berkeley
5. 🇬🇧 Oxford
6. 🇺🇸 Washington Seattle
7. 🇺🇸 Columbia University
8. 🇬🇧 Cambridge
9. 🇺🇸 Caltech
10. 🇺🇸 John Hopkins
.
11. 🇺🇸 Yale University
12. 🇬🇧 UCL
14. 🇺🇸 UCLA
18. 🇨🇦 University of Toronto
21. 🇺🇸 Cornell
23. 🇨🇳 Tsinghua University
26. 🇸🇬 National University of Singapore
27. 🇦🇺 University of Melbourne
28. 🇦🇺 University of Sydney
29. 🇨🇭 ETH Zürich
30. 🇸🇬 Nanyang Tech University
35. 🇨🇦 University of British Columbia
39. 🇨🇳 Peking University
40. 🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam
42. 🇩🇰 University of Copenhagen
44. 🇳🇱 Utrecht University
47. 🇩🇪 University of Munich
48. 🇫🇷 Sorbonne
50. 🇧🇪 KU Leuven
51. 🇸🇪 Karolinska Institutet
53. 🇭🇰 Chinese University of Hong Kong
65. 🇸🇦 King Abdulaziz University
81. 🇯🇵 University of Tokyo
86. 🇪🇸 University of Barcelona
89. 🇳🇴 University of Oslo
99. 🇫🇮 University of Helsinki
115. 🇮🇹 University of Padua
120. 🇧🇷 Universidade de São Paulo
122. 🇮🇹 University of Bologna
123. 🇳🇿 University of Auckland
125. 🇿🇦 University of Cape Town
127. 🇸🇪 Uppsala University
129. 🇰🇷 Seoul National University
134. 🇮🇱 Weizmann Institute of Science
173. 🇹🇷 Cankaya University
202. 🇵🇹 Universidade de Lisboa
206. 🇦🇹 Medical University of Vienna
215. 🇮🇪 Trinity College Dublin
223. 🇻🇳 Ton Duc Thang
226. 🇨🇿 Charles University Prague
250. 🇬🇷 National & Kapodistrian University
256. 🇪🇪 University of Tartu
329. 🇮🇷 University of Tehran
339. 🇵🇱 Jagiellonian University
349. 🇳🇬 University of Ibadan
335. 🇷🇺 Moscow State University
363. 🇪🇬 Cairo University
368. 🇭🇺 Eotvos Lorand University
405. 🇲🇽 Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México
426. 🇦🇷 University of Buenos Aires
441. 🇵🇰 CUI
452. 🇮🇳 TIFR
472. 🇱🇧 American University of Beirut
478. 🇵🇰 Aga Khan University
493. 🇪🇹 Mekelle University
512. 🇹🇭 Mahidol University
551. 🇮🇳 IISC Bangalore
564. 🇦🇪 University of Sharjah
598. 🇨🇴 University of the Andes Colombia
717. 🇷🇴 Babes Bolyai University
725. 🇧🇾 Belarusian State University
725. 🇮🇳 IIT Gandhinagar
826. 🇦🇲 Yerevan Physics Institute
948. 🇵🇪 Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
970. 🇮🇩 University of Indonesia
977. 🇧🇩 University of Dhaka
1000. 🇮🇳 Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology

*U.S. News & World Report, Best Global Universities rankings 2022-2023

[Emma Cain @eicain]

@tate_charlie just message you 😊

[Stock Market Nerd @StockMarketNerd]

Maybe JPM actually looked to see how $PYPL branded checkout share is stable w/volume, revenue & engagement growth all accelerating.

Or how its branded & unbranded flows deliver large checkout edges in availability, authorization & chargebacks vs. the rest of the industry.

Or how the mere presence of its button raises shopper conversion by 8% vs. 6% previously thanks to its brand strength & buyer protection program.

Or how $AAPL sees the value in more deeply partnering w/the giant 2-sided network just like $V & $MA did a decade ago.

Or how global smartphone market fragmentation makes $PYPL an ideally agnostic layer of unification.

Or how Braintree share gains are robust w/margin levers as clear as day & a new CEO w/direct experience in pulling those levers.

Or how Venmo ARPU is in inning 1 w/checkout, cards & business profiles all ramping.

Or how a company doing well over $1 trillion in annual volume may not suddenly die.

Or how meaningful of a buyback program it has in place w/the cash flows & the balance sheet to easily support the repurchases.

& how maybe a firm with all of these factors & a 15% EPS CAGR shouldn't trade for 12x 2023 earnings.

Just maybe. 🤷‍♂️🙂

[PayPal @PayPal]

👀 Now you can keep track of nearly all packages with the PayPal app. Click here to link your Gmail, or visit the Menu in the app and click Package Tracking to get started: https://t.co/Z7NQg7BX97

[BBC East Midlands @bbcemt]

Toxic swimming clubs: 'We are not in the military' https://t.co/GbDnSBdpL4

[UCLA Men’s Basketball @UCLAMBB]

The Bruins 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝟏𝟔 for the third straight season on Saturday night, outlasting Northwestern by a 68-63 margin in Sacramento.

RECAP: https://t.co/UASD4cLL0n
STATS: https://t.co/ni15nVEe42

[PayPal @PayPal]

On February 6, 2023, a 7.8 earthquake killed 20,000+ people in Turkey and Syria. Support relief charities with PayPal Giving Fund. https://t.co/YdWhI1l98r

#TurkeySyriaEarthquake

[UCLA @UCLA]

Bruins! Thank you for making UCLA the #1 public university, 6 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report !💙 🐻 💛 Learn more for full announcement + details. #1UCLA https://t.co/0Lg8DiwSO3

[President Biden Archived @POTUS46Archive]

Twenty-one years later, we keep alive the memory of all the precious lives stolen from us at Ground Zero, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. To the families and loved ones who still feel the ache, Jill and I hold you close in our hearts.

We will never forget.

[All On The Board @allontheboard]

Rest In Peace HM Queen Elizabeth II. You will always be missed, never forgotten and forever loved.

#TheQueen #QueenElizabeth

[Millfield School @MillfieldSenior]

💙Things you love to see💙

Gold medal celebrations between OM Brodie Williams and Millfield Director of Swimming, & England Swim Coach Euan Dale!🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Euan was key in nurturing Brodie when he arrived at Millfield; it’s amazing to see them celebrating together on the world stage!🙌

[Emma Cain @eicain]

@jennlath i did this with sour patch kids - it’s a phase

[UCLA @UCLA]

UCLA turns 103 today! 🎂

From the archives: A look back at how it all started. https://t.co/jWq0ZGX4u6

[Blake Emal @heyblake]

7-minute masterclass in marketing.

[50cent @50cent]

Manchester, England! It’s going down June 11-12 at Parklife! This is going to be fun! Don’t Miss It • https://t.co/ABpCYy6azx

[PayPal @PayPal]

Stay tuned for a big surprise… 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀 💵👀

[UCLA @UCLA]

👑 #1 public university
🐻 5 years in a row!
💙 🎉 💛 #1UCLA
https://t.co/00UVc5Mc0B