The increasing part of payments in sphere of electronic commerce is carried out by network payment systems. This article about PayPal payment system we open the whole cycle of articles about opportunities, merits and demerits of different on-line payment systems.

Electronic payment system PayPal is at present one of the most popular and reliable among foreign payment systems. To the beginning of 2006 it serves users from 55 countries.

The list of the countries and the regions served PayPal:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, India, Jamaica, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Israel, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, Anguilla, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa.

Payment system PayPal has been based by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin in 1998. It is the private company placed in Palo Alto in California.

PayPal gives to the users to carry out reception and departure of payments by means of e-mail or a mobile phone with access to the Internet.

Except for that users of payment system PayPal have an opportunity:

• To send payments (Send Money). PayPal user can translate any sum from the personal account. Thus as the addressee of payment can act both other user PayPal, and absolutely extraneous person. For realization of payment it is necessary for user to fill the form of translation into which following fields enter: the address of an electronic mail box of the addressee, the sum of payment, a surname of the addressee. When the user is ready to make payment, it is necessary to press "Send Money", and the electronic letter will be sent the addressee who under the reference in the letter gets on a web-site of payment system where makes out reception of a remittance.
• To carry out inquiry about reception of payment (Money Request). Using this kind of services, the user can send the debtors the letters containing inquiry about carrying out of payment (to draw the account on payment). To direct the letter it is possible both to the separate user, and group of people. For this purpose the user should enter an e-mail address of the addressee of the letter and the sum into fields of the special form. Further the payer receives the letter referring to a web-site of payment system. On site PayPal the user makes out a remittance then the necessary sum gets on the account of the addressee of payment system.
• Accommodations on a Web-site of special tools for reception of payments (Web Tools). This service is accessible only to owners Prime-minister-accounts and Business-accounts and the Internet-shops is recommended for use by owners. Thus the user can place the button on the site, having pressed which the payer gets on a site of payment system where it can execute procedure of payment (it is possible to use a credit card) then again comes back to a site of the user. The commission for reception of payments makes 1,9% from the sum of payment.
• Uses of tools for auction trade (Auction Tools). The payment system offers two kinds of services. 1) automatic dispatch of inquiries about reception of payment (Automatic Payment Request). 2) winners of the auction tenders can pay directly from a Web-site on which auction (Instant Purchase for Auctions) is spent.
• To carry out financial operations by means of a mobile phone (Mobile Payments);
• To carry out simultaneous payment to a plenty of users (Batch Pay);
• To carry out daily translation of money resources into the bank account (Auto-Sweep).

The opportunity of percent reception for storage on the account of money resources is in the long term considered.

For transfer of the information are used SSL protocols with a code key 128-bit. The information acts on a server which is protected both from physical, and from electronic breaking. The server is equipped FireWalls and directly is not connected to the Internet. Except for that all money resources inshured company SafeWeb Insurance for the sum $100.000.

To become the user of system it is necessary: to fill the standard registration form and to open the personal account in system. There are some kinds of accounts: the Personal account, Personal Prime-minister-account and Business-account. To fill up the account it is possible by means of a credit card or translation from the bank account.