Venmo Five Years Ago

Post by habitue » Wed, Oct 21, 2015, 11:28 PM UTC

nemothekid wrote: post #56

superuser2 wrote: post #34

Venmo is an objectively worse experience to Square Cash in every way. Bank accounts rather than debit cards, difficult Facebook-linked discovery, stupid social networking integration, obtuse UI. Square Cash is beautiful, elegant, and effortless. I encourage my friends to use it over Venmo whenever I can. Unfortunately, Venmo is wildly more popular among people I know.

I'd have to argue with "objectively" - many of your gripes are subjective. The bank account vs. debit card is one time on setup - and has little to do with day to day interaction. Not do I see how the UI is obtuse - it takes 3 clicks to pay someone. The one legitimate gripe you have (the facebook/social network), is a plus in my opinion - in the sense I can pay anyone by just knowing their name. Friend of so-and-so i…

Post by sushid » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 12:28 AM UTC

habosa wrote: post #19

Question: does anyone know how/if Venmo makes money or is it just a loss-leader for Braintree/PayPal? I use it for thousands of dollars of transactions a year but I have never paid a penny in fees or seen an ad. People claim that Venmo acts as a bank and invests my carried balance but I can't imagine that's lucrative enough to pay all the bills.

Post by ennuihenry » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 12:39 AM UTC

stevesearer wrote: post #31

habosa wrote: post #19

Question: does anyone know how/if Venmo makes money or is it just a loss-leader for Braintree/PayPal? I use it for thousands of dollars of transactions a year but I have never paid a penny in fees or seen an ad. People claim that Venmo acts as a bank and invests my carried balance but I can't imagine that's lucrative enough to pay all the bills.

They also charge a 3% fee on money sent using a credit card. Many of my friends just have a balance sitting in their Venmo account because they use it so often to pay for things from rent to groceries to splitting a bill at a restaurant. No idea of the metrics of how much can be made from the interest on those balances though.

Post by boggie1688 » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

Post by josephpmay » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 10:56 PM UTC

boggie1688 wrote: post #97

I'm so surprised that Venmo has not been acquired. You think someone like Paypal, Android Pay, or Apply Pay would buy them.