PayPal Holdings Inc reported a 16.6 per cent rise in quarterly revenue, in line with analysts' estimates, helped by growth in customer and merchant accounts on its payments platform.

Shares of the payments processor were little changed after the bell on Thursday.

The San Jose, California-based company's active customer accounts rose 10 per cent to 197 million, beating research firm FactSet StreetAccount's estimate of 196.5 million.

Total payments volume surged 21.9 per cent to US$99.35 billion.

The company said it expects first-quarter revenue to be US$2.9 billion-US$2.95 billion. Analysts on an average were expecting US$2.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

PayPal has witnessed rapid growth in a number of services such as person-to-person payment app Venmo and Braintree, a payment gateway used by larger merchants, since it was spun off from eBay Inc in 2015.

Payment volumes at Venmo, whose customers are mainly millennials, surged 126 per cent to US$5.6 billion in the fourth quarter.

Net income rose to US$390 million, or 32 cents US per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from US$367 million, or 30 cents US per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 42 cents US per share.

Revenue rose to US$2.98 billion from US$2.56 billion.

Analysts were expecting 42 cents US per share on revenue of US$2.98 billion.