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I imagine my feelings about Venmo reflect a lot of peoples': Basically it was the first way to send money on mobile phones that wasn't miserable or charged fee
by ajkjk 8y ago
I imagine my feelings about Venmo reflect a lot of peoples':
Basically it was the first way to send money on mobile phones that wasn't miserable or charged fees so everyone started using it. By the time PayPal owned it it was already popular.
Everyone wanted to easily send money for at least, like, 10 years before that. It was the first mainstream option and it still felt really late. (PayPal already existed but was... disliked. I think because of lots of horror stories about customer service, and maybe not having a convenient app interface, or requiring a bank account connection?)
The competitors are all equivalent now (FB, Google, whatever), but I would never embrace using a FB or Google product exclusively so Venmo feels like a 'neutral third-party option' , at least to an extent, which we can use as the 'default' payments app.
The Bank's versions (Zelle, etc) are way too coupled to banks and too big-corporation to be excited about.
If there was, say, a startup that did exactly the same thing as Venmo but wasn't affiliated with a big company (PayPal), I think everyone would happily use it. If it was, like, a B-corp or non-profit that gives proceeds to charity, I think everyone would jump ship instantly.
Basically I don't care at all about Venmo's social features, I just want to send money and prefer not to support a big corporation or give more data to FB or Google. I bet lots of people are of similar mind.
- bskap 8y agoSo Square Cash then?
- chillacy 8y agoAt this point there are too many network effects around venmo, if you're splitting the BBQ with 5 people and 4 have venmo and you don't, it's not as convenient for the requester. That's why I got venmo initially, and now it's super easy to request money from friends and 2nd degree friends, since my network is all venmo. I know 1 person who uses square cash and he's over 40, and I know 2 or 3 less tech-literate friends who use paypal and refuse to try venmo. It's just a hassle to split costs with them because I have to do it in 2 apps instead of adding everyone to the same request in venmo.
- tbrownaw 8y agoI feel like I'm missing something here. If I go out somewhere with a bunch of friends, we just ask for separate checks.
- lyricaljoke 8y agoWorks well unless: - the restaurant doesn't do separate checks for large groups - friends ordered meals with significant variance in case, and the server wasn't initially told to keep items separated - you want to split communal items in an arbitrary fashion
- icedchai 8y agoMe too. This is not a problem I've ever encountered.
- smelendez 8y agoI think "splitting the BBQ" as in someone is buying and cooking a bunch of food and their friends are helping with the cost. But anyway, some restaurants don't split checks and most don't like to because it's extra work for their staff.
- alistairSH 8y agoHow does PayPal fail this use case? Or cash (the horror)?
- ajkjk 8y agoPeople don't carry cash as much as they used to, because they don't need to, because apps can do it.
- chillacy 8y agoMy friends and I largely don't carry cash, and even though I typically carry a single 20 and a 100 dollar bill for emergencies, it's hard to split cash unless someone else can give you change, which requires them to carry a bunch of 5s 10s 1s (coins?). Paypal fails like I said because of network effects. More people in my friend group have venmo than paypal (even though paypal owns both), so when it's time to pay, venmo is the default. Nothing is inherently wrong with paypal, it's just that nobody in my group uses it. So, just plain old network effects.
- Kluny 8y agoI still don't get it. My bank's app lets me send money to people via interac e-transfer. It's kind of a pain in the ass to add a new payee each time, but the payee doesn't need to have any app themselves. It works through email and the bank's website. It's free too. What does venmo have that isn't covered by that?
- pimlottc 8y agoI don't know where you live, but most banks in the US don't have that, and if they do, the UI and messaging is often terrible.
- tehwebguy 8y agoIn fact Venmo's popularity, in my mind, is directly related to US banks finally making a push for free user-to-user transfers (even if their apps still need massive work).
- megy 8y ago> I still don't get it. My bank's app lets me send money to people via interac e-transfer. You don't get it that most banks do not do that? I am unsure why you are confused about that?
- Kluny 8y agoEvery bank in Canada does it, even the tiny credit unions. It's common throughout Europe. I don't know about Australia, but they probably have it too. I don't know, just another example of Americans being backwards and thinking everyone else has the same problems. I seriously can't believe it's 2018 and this isn't mandatory for every bank yet.
- rdm_blackhole 8y agoAustralia just got PayId this year which means you can send any amount of money to anybody who signs up via their banks and receive money in seconds. Until last year you had to wait up to 3 days to do an interbank transfer but not anymore. (same bank transfer would usually clear within the day) I have used it quite a bit since it was released and I have to say that it does the job. The only downside is that it is tied to your phone number and I am not really sure what the process is if you want to change it.