Lackluster branded checkout and TPV growth in Q4 2025 end CEO Alex Chriss’ tenure.

This FAQ addresses what commerce media is, how it differs from retail media, and where growth opportunities exist for advertisers in 2026.

Trust in consumer banking varies widely in 2026. Primary banks still anchor core products. But confidence differs by generation, product, and channel, with honesty, transparency, and security shaping how consumers evaluate financial providers.

Generational splits shape how consumers find, research, and trust banks. Younger adults move through digital channels with ease, while older adults rely on branches, human support, and established institutions.

PayPal merchants will now be discoverable within Perplexity, per a press release—right in time for Cyber Five. PayPal merchants stand to benefit from the rising tide of genAI adopters who are reinventing the research, product recommendation, and deal-seeking status quo. Merchants that cater to Gen Z should push to be early adopters of the new update: 47% of Gen Zers already have found a new brand or product through AI, per an Adobe survey. Early mover merchants could get a boost from genAI holiday volume this season.

YouTube’s established dominance faces new competition from TikTok, long-held digital habits are maturing, and digital video is universal. Our latest forecast data reveals where each age group overindexes, how their time spent is shifting across platforms, and what marketers should prioritize next to stay relevant.

Venmo launched Venmo Stash, a bundled brand rewards system for users, per a press release. Cardholders can select handpicked bundles of their favorite brands—which include Uber, Lyft, Target, Walmart, and Sephora—to earn a flat 1% back on their purchases. Users can raise that rate to 2% by enabling auto-reloads to their wallets and 5% for adding at least $500 in direct deposits on Venmo each month. Injecting more choice into consumers’ rewards adds incentives to make a card top of wallet. Leaning into flexible rewards and card-linked offers can help secure younger consumers who are looking for value and functionality at checkout during economic uncertainty.

OpenAI’s push into commerce took a major step forward with the launch of in-app shopping on ChatGPT, though it will take time to gain traction as a meaningful retail sales channel.

Southwest Airlines rolled out a rewards debit card, per a press release. The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Debit Card runs on Visa’s network and is issued by Sunrise Bank in partnership with SoFi-owned Galileo’s card issuing platform. Offering a debit card helps Southwest tie customers closer to its loyalty program. But getting consumers to sign up may be a tough sell. Consumers who don’t have the credit scores or means to pay for a Southwest credit card may balk at parking $2,500 a checking account.

Fintechs, big tech, and payment players are using genAI to redefine finance. To compete, banks must pair strategic genAI investment with hyper-personalization and human support to earn customer trust and loyalty.

PayPal’s revenues grew 7% YoY to $8.4 billion in Q3 2025, driven by the success of branded experiences, PSP, and Venmo, per its earnings report. While PayPal notched a successful quarter, storm clouds are on the horizon. Basket sizes are shrinking and average order value is sinking, per PayPal CFO Jamie Miller. Leaning into payment flexibility and desirable rewards like cash back can help payment providers earn loyalty from squeezed middle- class consumers.

PayPal will use Rokt, an AI marketing service, to power its post-transaction advertisements for users in the US, per a press release. PayPal has for years tried to improve Venmo’s profitability, and post-transaction ads could help accomplish that without changing consumers’ retail checkout habits. However, one of FMNs key selling points to advertisers and consumers alike is trust. Platforms with FMNs should take care not to erode consumer trust—and down the line, loyalty—by pushing ads too aggressively too soon.

A minor technical failure took down Amazon Web Services (AWS) for several hours. Disrupted financial apps reportedly included Chime, Coinbase, and Venmo. Some financial institutions (FIs) were also reportedly affected.A mistake in a digital transformation project or a poor choice of vendor can have far-reaching consequences for a bank’s customer relationships and compliance with recordkeeping regulations. The solution for banks that can afford it has been redundancy through hybrid deployments to the cloud and on-premise.

Early Warning Services’ Zelle disclosed double-digit year-over-year (YoY) growth across critical segments during the first half of 2025, per a press release. With P2P’s absence in Zelle’s volume increase list, the platform holds firm hold on essential payments, but seemingly has failed to disrupt established use patterns among users who still differentiate between smaller transactions—Venmoing a friend back for coffee—and large, major payments, such as Zelle-ing a landlord monthly rent.

PayPal debuted PayPal links, a new peer-to-peer (P2P) payment request method available for US consumers. When PayPal bought Venmo, it prioritized growing that brand’s P2P clout in the US rather than absorbing it into the PayPal brand. Making a new, more convenient P2P payment method available only on PayPal and not Venmo could be a sign the company is trying to reestablish PayPal’s perception as a financial “everything” app rather than just its strong association as an ecommerce payment method.

The news: PayPal and Venmo users can receive early access to Perplexity’s new browser, Comet, with a free 12-month trial of Perplexity Pro. Our take: Big Tech is betting that agentic commerce is the future of shopping, but consumers aren’t on board yet: Nearly 70% of US adults are not interested in AI-powered shopping assistants, per a September 2024 EMARKETER and CivicScience survey. While jostling for future positioning in the market, PayPal, Venmo, and Perplexity need to convince consumers that agentic commerce is a desirable payment option, lest they repeat a metaverse investment flop.

The news: PayPal posted net revenue growth of 5% YoY at $8.3 billion due to strong performances of Venmo, its debit card, and Braintree, per its earnings report. Our take: PayPal is leaning into its branded experience and tech innovations to power its way through 2025.

The news: Cash App launched “pools”—a feature to make group payments frictionless—to a limited number of US-based users with plans for a later wider rollout, per a press release. Our take: Cash App wants to cement itself among Gen Z users, households making up to $150,000 annually, and the populations traditionally overlooked by legacy financial institutions.

The news: PayPal launched PayPal World, a global platform linking major international payment systems and digital wallets. Our take: While PayPal’s starting list of key partnerships represents Latin America, India, and China, the payment provider could penetrate further into European markets by tying up with the European Payments Initiative and the Wero wallet—as well as with top US wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay or the nascent Paze.

The news: PayPal rolled out a dynamic, AI-powered scam alert system to protect consumers against fraud for “Friends and Family” transactions. Our take: Rolling out user-facing AI-powered fraud protection alerts increases PayPal’s visibility as a safe financial provider for more than just online checkout at well-known retailers.