ONLINE payment service PayPal says its systems are back online after a power failure at one of its data centres caused a global outage for several hours.

Users flooded to social media early on Friday afternoon to report being unable to make payments. “Unable to login, or when I do login, cannot actually access any information in my account. It continues to display errors,” wrote Facebook user Jessa Lee Green.

In a statement, a PayPal spokeswoman told news.com.au: “Following a temporary service interruption customers can once again pay with PayPal. This interruption was caused by a data center power outage, which we have addressed.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. As always we are committed to giving our customers around the world trusted and reliable ways to manage and move their money.”

PayPal, which has 173 million users globally, yesterday reported its third-quarter net income rose 28.6 percent to $US301 million ($A423 million). It was the first standalone quarter for PayPal since spinning off from parent company eBay in July.

This interruption was caused by a data center power outage, which we addressed. We apologize for any inconvenience — PayPal (@PayPal) October 30, 2015

Following a temporary service interruption customers can once again pay with PayPal. — PayPal (@PayPal) October 30, 2015

We are aware of an interruption in our service which is preventing some of our customers from being able to pay with PayPal. — PayPal (@PayPal) October 30, 2015

We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working to restore service as quickly as possible. — PayPal (@PayPal) October 30, 2015

So whats going on #Paypal some feedback would be nice @PayPal hope you get it sorted soon — Lorraine Scapens (@MummyTrainer) October 30, 2015

@PayPal #fail. Again. I can't log in or log out. At least it isn't a financial website or anything important. Oh. Wait. — Dave Grossman (@diablo943) October 30, 2015

@Shopify Is Paypal checkout down? We've gotten a ton of reports from customers in the last 30 mins — Michelle Lara L. (@michellelaralin) October 30, 2015

Originally published as PayPal service goes down globally