--- title: "PayPal lands Ticketmaster processing and a Meta checkout slot; branded wallet grew just 2%" description: "In three days PayPal became Ticketmaster's preferred wallet and primary processor, shipped its checkout inside UK e-commerce software, and took one of four slots in Meta's in-chat checkout test. A stock down 27% on the year waits on October 27 earnings to learn which checkout pays." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Money" published: 2026-10-09T02:50:11.324Z modified: 2026-10-09T02:50:11.324Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/paypal-lands-ticketmaster-processing-and-a-meta-checkout-slot-branded-wallet-grew-just-2 language: en keywords: "PayPal, Ticketmaster, Meta, Fintech, E-commerce" --- # PayPal lands Ticketmaster processing and a Meta checkout slot; branded wallet grew just 2% > In three days PayPal became Ticketmaster's preferred wallet and primary processor, shipped its checkout inside UK e-commerce software, and took one of four slots in Meta's in-chat checkout test. A stock down 27% on the year waits on October 27 earnings to learn which checkout pays. Live Nation made [PayPal](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/paypal) the preferred payments partner of Ticketmaster and its primary payment processor on October 8 [1]. PayPal, Pay Later and Venmo now sit across the ticketing platform, with festival perks at Bonnaroo, BottleRock and Lollapalooza under an expanded marketing program [1]. [PayPal's own data](https://dd.jobartis.com/ticketmaster-names-paypal-as-its-preferred-payments-partner-0884972.html) carries the argument: shoppers are nearly three times more likely to finish buying a ticket when PayPal is visible at checkout [1]. A day earlier, Commerce [shipped BigCommerce Payments by PayPal to the UK](https://channelx.world/2026/10/bigcommerce-payments-by-paypal-launches-in-the-uk/), the first market outside the May US launch [2][3]. One native checkout carries cards, [Apple](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/apple) Pay, Google Pay and buy-now-pay-later from PayPal, Klarna and Clearpay, and the merchant relationship stays with PayPal, not Commerce [2][3]. ## Ticketmaster is the checkout PayPal can own The Ticketmaster deal buys the shelf outright. PayPal processes the payments, fronts the brand shoppers already trust for big-ticket purchases, and gets Venmo and Pay Later products in front of fans financing seats [1]. The BigCommerce arrangement is the same trade at software level: PayPal is the embedded money layer in another company's storefront, and the merchant stays PayPal's customer, not Commerce's [2][3]. ## Meta's front door charges rent At Advertising Week on October 6, [Meta](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/meta) said it is [testing direct checkout inside Meta AI with four payment partners](https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-launches-ai-ad-tools-with-in-chat-checkout-at-ad-week-2026): Adyen, PayPal, [Shopify](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/shopify) and Stripe [4]. The sequencing is the tell. Meta's Muse agent launched on September 8 with Stripe's Link already built in [5][7]. Shopify's Shop Pay arrived on September 21 [6]. PayPal got its slot the next day [5]. [Amazon blocked Muse outright on September 21](https://theinference.org/article/amazon-shut-muse-out-and-handed-claude-the-store-keys), and Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta expects to profit by taking a small fee on transactions [7]. Meta owns the door and charges rent; PayPal is bidding to be one of four locks on it. ## The branded wallet is the laggard [Second-quarter results](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/corporate-news/paypal-stock-gains-ahead-of-ex-dividend-date-as-q2-earnings-and-takeover-bid-reshape-outlook/70055501) explain the urgency. Payment volume grew 9% in constant currency to about $486 billion and revenue grew 4.8% to $8.68 billion, but the branded wallet grew just 2% while Venmo and Braintree grew 15%, and the take rate slipped 7 basis points to 1.61% [8]. Volume is fine. The branded checkout is the problem. *Chart: **Venmo and Braintree grew 15% in Q2; the branded wallet grew 2%** Bar chart of Q2 2026 year-over-year growth: Venmo and Braintree 15%, total payment volume 9%, revenue as reported 4.8%, branded wallet 2%.* *Year-over-year growth, Q2 2026. Payment-volume measures in constant currency; the revenue bar is as reported. Source: PayPal Q2 2026 results. [8]* *Chart: **Revenue growth has halved since 2023** Line chart of PayPal year-over-year revenue growth by quarter from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, falling from around 8 to 9 percent to 4.8 percent, with a reference line at 4.3 percent.* *Year-over-year revenue growth by calendar quarter, percent, Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, from PayPal's SEC filings. Reference line: the 4.3% growth rate assumed by the 2029 base case. [11][10]* The tape has priced the worry: $54.67 in pre-market trading on October 8, down 27.0% over one year and up 16.4% over three, a rebound whose first leg was a reported buyout approach of about $53 billion that collapsed [9][8]. ## October 27 decides which camp gets paid Bulls read the week as proof the checkout franchise is stabilizing, and [one screener still puts fair value 63.9% above the tape](https://www.tradingpedia.com/2026/10/08/paypals-sluggish-recovery-presents-a-tactical-opportunity/) [9]. Bears answer with the consensus: analyst targets imply 3.5% upside, and the base case lands at $56.92, about 4% above the price, built on 2029 revenue of $38.7 billion growing 4.3% a year while earnings fall to $4.7 billion [9][10]. PayPal itself expects agentic payments to turn significant from 2028 onward, so the Meta slot is an option, not this quarter's revenue [5]. The October 27 report settles it [9]. Two numbers decide: branded-wallet growth against its 2% second-quarter print, and third-quarter earnings per share against the guided low-single-digit decline, with the full year already raised to $5.38 [8]. ## Takeaway Ticketmaster processing, an embedded UK checkout and one of four Meta AI slots are distribution wins, but October 27 earnings decide whether branded checkout growth beats 2% and earnings beat the guided decline. ## Sources 1. [Omnipost (CelebrityAccess), Ticketmaster Names PayPal as Its Preferred Payments Partner, 8 October 2026](https://dd.jobartis.com/ticketmaster-names-paypal-as-its-preferred-payments-partner-0884972.html) 2. [ChannelX, BigCommerce Payments by PayPal launches in the UK, 7 October 2026](https://channelx.world/2026/10/bigcommerce-payments-by-paypal-launches-in-the-uk/) 3. [Commerce press release via Nasdaq, Commerce Delivers BigCommerce Payments by PayPal to Simplify Payments and Accelerate Merchant Growth, 6 May 2026](https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/commerce-delivers-bigcommerce-payments-paypal-simplify-payments-and-accelerate) 4. [Web Pulse (Inside AI), Meta Launches AI Ad Tools With In-Chat Checkout at Ad Week 2026, 7 October 2026](https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-launches-ai-ad-tools-with-in-chat-checkout-at-ad-week-2026) 5. [PYMNTS, Meta Adds PayPal to Muse AI Assistant for Global Checkout, 22 September 2026](https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/meta-adds-paypal-muse-ai-assistant-global-checkout/) 6. [PYMNTS, Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta's Muse AI Agent, 22 September 2026](https://www.pymnts.com/commerce/ecommerce/2026/shopify-brings-shop-pay-checkout-solution-to-metas-muse-ai-agent/) 7. [Wikipedia, Muse (AI agent), retrieved 9 October 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_(AI_agent)) 8. [ad-hoc-news, PayPal stock gains ahead of ex-dividend date as Q2 earnings and takeover bid reshape outlook, 4 September 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/corporate-news/paypal-stock-gains-ahead-of-ex-dividend-date-as-q2-earnings-and-takeover-bid-reshape-outlook/70055501) 9. [TradingPedia, PayPal's Sluggish Recovery Presents a Tactical Opportunity, 8 October 2026](https://www.tradingpedia.com/2026/10/08/paypals-sluggish-recovery-presents-a-tactical-opportunity/) 10. [Yahoo Finance Australia (Simply Wall St), PayPal's AI Checkout Push and Agentic Commerce Vision Might Change The Case For Investing In PYPL, 8 October 2026](https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-ai-checkout-push-agentic-071037715.html) 11. [PayPal Holdings quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 9 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001633917) --- PayPal lands Ticketmaster processing and a Meta checkout slot; branded wallet grew just 2% — The Inference. 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