PayPal continues to draw new customers and merchants ahead of competition, on the back of new features such as a mobile payments offering.

PayPal handled $81.1 billion (A$106 billion) in transactions in the first quarter, up 31 percent from a year earlier. It added 4.5 million new customer accounts and now has 14 million merchants taking payments via the platform.

The company posted revenue of $2.54 billion in the quarter, compared to $2.14 billion a year earlier. Net income was $365 million, compared with $255 million a year earlier.

CEO Dan Schulman said the company’s one-touch mobile payments feature – which lets shoppers complete transactions on smartphones with the push of a button – is a key attraction.

More than 21 million customers of PayPal’s 184 million account holders are said to be using the feature.