PayPal plans to double staff in Asia

SINGAPORE: PayPal, a unit of online auction site operator eBay Inc., plans to double its staff in Asia to 2,000 by the end of the year, president Scott Thompson said Wednesday.

``Asia is our fastest growing market and we absolutely expect that trend to continue,'' Thompson said. ``This is going to be a massive market and we look forward to having a really big business here.''

PayPal's fourth quarter revenue outside the U.S. was $364 million, or 46 percent of overall sales.

Thompson declined to comment on recent Chinese media reports that PayPal is in negotiations for a partnership with e-commerce retailer Alibaba Group, which is 39-percent owned by Yahoo Inc.

Paypal said Wednesday it has partnered with China UnionPay, which operates interbank transaction settlement for bankcards in China and the region, and Singapore's DBS bank to provide online payment services to the burgeoning Asian internet shopping market.

China UnionPay has issued 2.1 billion bankcards in 10 countries, and its members can use PayPal by the third quarter to make internet purchases around the world, PayPal said.

Some four million DBS customers will be able to debit their bank accounts to fund PayPal accounts by the middle of the year.