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This is only the case if you were very late to p2p transactions. Venmo was well embedded in my social circles by the time there was any competition (with the po
by wutbrodo 9y ago
This is only the case if you were very late to p2p transactions. Venmo was well embedded in my social circles by the time there was any competition (with the possible exception of Google wallet. With something so utility-oriented, why go out of your way to rebuild an entire network?
You may as well ask why anyone uses Facebook when Google+ had better features on launch (like post visibility granularity).
- johnchristopher 9y agoBut it's a US thing, right ? Here in Belgium/Europe I can take out my smartphone, open my bank app, input my friend's account number and send him money right away (35 years ago you had to do it by paper, 25 years ago there were computers in the bank and now it's on the phone/tablet/web browser). Of course it's really going from one bank to the other so it's not p2p but the UX is as smooth.
- objclxt 9y agoYeah. Even in the UK - which is behind much of continental Europe in terms of banking - you can send money to anyone's bank account immediately and for free given their account number. Neither of these things are true in the US (at least going via the bank, hence why Venmo / Square Cash / etc exist).
- uiri 9y agoIn North America, given a bank account number, you can pull money from it (this is how cheques work over there). In Europe, given a bank account number, you can put money into it (this is how "giros" work). This fundamental difference in banking system has caused endless pain for the US and its hyperlocal banking system. Canada overcame this by having a home grown debit card system expand into online payments.