PayPal customers in Europe number near 35 million

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - PayPal, the online payments unit of auction website eBay Inc. (EBAY.O), said on Tuesday it has nearly 35 million customer accounts in Europe, about a quarter of all its accounts.

In 2006, PayPal processed $8.4 billion of payments in Europe, representing around 22 percent of its worldwide total of $37.8 billion.

PayPal previously only disclosed the number of registered users and payment volumes in the United States and for all international customers. It reported 86 million U.S. PayPal users and 47 million international users at the end of 2006.

According to Forrester Research, 23 percent of European online shoppers prefer PayPal to paying with credit cards or other payment methods.

PayPal is the preferred payment method among European users of eBay auctions and Web telephone calling company Skype, another eBay company which was founded in Europe. PayPal also is accepted by thousands of European merchants.