You’ve probably heard of Azerbaijan, even if like me you’d struggle to find it on a map (It’s a bit to the east of Turkey). Evans Kiplagat from Azerbaijan won their only Gold medal in the marathon at the Rio Olympics, although they did snag another 7 Silver and 10 Bronze medals in other sports.
Now it appears PayPal has woken up to the country with a population of 9.7 million and are planning on setting up operations in Azerbaijan. According to Trend, PayPal have already selected an as yet unnamed bank to work with and are working towards in country accreditation.
PayPal already operate in 202 countries around the world, so with Azerbaijan being the 89th most populous it’s somewhat surprising that they’re not already there. Whilst picking off easier territories to work in, it’s probably more to do with culture, language and most technology and security and most importantly the regulatory regime that’s held them back until now.
