Fintech giant, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is stuck in a downward spiral — while the payments industry continues to rise.

What’s the big deal? A pandemic shift to digital and e-commerce benefited PayPal — the payments super app that makes payments and transfers easy at a low cost.

But growth stalled in 2021 — sending PYPL down by over 30% since July — down 11% on the year —  on top of analyst downgrades over growth concerns:

• Sales growth peaked at 30% in the first quarter — declining to 13% in the recent third quarter.
• PayPal blamed slower growth on e-commerce slowing due to supply chain issues.

Investors also didn’t support its Pinterest acquisition plan for $40B in October — which fell through. But don’t count PayPal out just yet.

• This month, Amazon announced a partnership to accept payments from PayPal-owned Venmo.
• Investing and crypto features were added to its app — allowing crypto to be bought/sold or used to make purchases.

PayPal also acquired Japanese BNPL firm, Paidy, for $2.7B in September — expanding its buy now pay later (BNPL) product. And looking at payments volume, PayPal is already at Affirm’s levels.

Prime real estate: Competition is everywhere for PayPal. Sudheendra Chilappagari pointed out — the checkout page has become the most expensive real estate on the internet — filled with payment options like:

• Payment services — Shop Pay (Shopify) and Amazon Pay.
• BNPL options — Affirm and AfterPay (Square).
• Crypto-based tools — Coinbase Commerce, CoinPayments.

In addition to traditional payment methods like credit cards.

Investors: PayPal is up 414% in the past 5 years but competition has increased. If PayPal doesn’t stay ahead, growth could slow even more. But for now, it’s a highly profitable business and its global presence keeps it relevant.

Must-read: The future of fintech is financial super apps — and PayPal wants in.