One paragraph in I thought to myself "haven't I read this before?" A quick google later: https://qz.com/687395/venmo-is-turning-our-friends-into-pett...
Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
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Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#12I don't understand why Venmo is such a popular app. I've always used Square Cash and just recently tried Venmo for the first time. My sister and I had dinner and she offered to split the tab. She refused to try Square Cash and had me download Venmo. On the iPhone it felt like buggy port with some weird social feature that allows users to see public transaction.
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).
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#13Maybe its because I live in a semi-rural part of the Midwest, but I've never even heard of Venmo. > Ms. Pennoyer agreed and recalled childhood taxi rides, when two adults would fight to treat the other That still happens around here. (Well, we don't really have many Taxis around here, but it happens with meals at restaurants and such. I can recall occasions not too long ago where friends and I would all try and sneak…
Also rare among people over 40.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#14I see systems like Venmo being commoditized and Venmo being an acquisition target or being disruptive for large banks . My reasoning is below. I must not be a true milennial (29) .The new hip social networks don’t make sense to me or don’t work. Not only that but if this is a feature of Vennmo I’ll stay with only transferring cash to people with boring old Chase Quickpay with a bank account I don’t have to pay for wi…
> I must not be a true milennial (29) .The new hip social networks don’t make sense to me or don’t work. Not only that but if this is a feature of Vennmo I’ll stay with only transferring cash to people with boring old Chase Quickpay with a bank account I don’t have to pay for without Venmo fees.
I think this is less "not a hip millennial" and more "commenting on something you don't understand". Venmo doesn't have fees.
The reason everyone started using venmo is because it predates anything even remotely as usable (try getting bank account numbers from 15 people at a dinner). The introduction of usable p2p transfer by eg banks was motivated by venmo's success.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#15Maybe its because I live in a semi-rural part of the Midwest, but I've never even heard of Venmo. > Ms. Pennoyer agreed and recalled childhood taxi rides, when two adults would fight to treat the other That still happens around here. (Well, we don't really have many Taxis around here, but it happens with meals at restaurants and such. I can recall occasions not too long ago where friends and I would all try and sneak…
Yeah, I only use Venmo when I'm on the coasts. None of my friends in the Midwest have it, and maybe I'm just used to it, but it just felt inefficient to split the bill and wait for each person to pay with their own credit card rather than having one person pay and Venmo them back.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#16On the contrary, I find it removes social friction if you go out to eat relatively often. You can still buy rounds of drinks or pick up the tab; no one is stopping you from being generous. In college I found it way more tedious to try and "keep-even" with classmates. Combine that with any sort of gossip around "they always shortchange" (maybe they're not good at tax+tip mental calcs), and I'm all for removing uncerta…
Yeah, I second that it removes friction. I hate the "lets split the bill evenly"-approach. It makes me feel like I leech of others if I want something expensive, and the other way around if I'm not very hungry but have to pay for everybody else having three courses.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#17I think the problem here is expectations. If you went to dinner with a friend, and thought everything was covered but then later received a bill in the mail there's an aspect of unexpected demands in it. If your friend said ahead of time "hey I've got this app that will let us split the bill easily, that okay?" then you'd be expecting it and there's no social transgression.
Social norms and expectations are the fiction here, not the money itself.
This app won't get much transaction in Canada though- in Toronto at least most waiters easily handle individual bills for groups. I was at a party of 12 or so the other day- no issues will the bills, everyone paid for what they ordered. Better software, or maybe better wait staff, whatever it is, it works.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#18I don't understand why Venmo is such a popular app. I've always used Square Cash and just recently tried Venmo for the first time. My sister and I had dinner and she offered to split the tab. She refused to try Square Cash and had me download Venmo. On the iPhone it felt like buggy port with some weird social feature that allows users to see public transaction.
I've never even heard of Square Cash before and I don't know anyone who uses it. "Sending money for free" is a very simple story, so whichever app is most widely installed wins. I already have and use Venmo and Google Wallet regularly; I'm not installing a third. Too many things to keep track of.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#19I see systems like Venmo being commoditized and Venmo being an acquisition target or being disruptive for large banks . My reasoning is below. I must not be a true milennial (29) .The new hip social networks don’t make sense to me or don’t work. Not only that but if this is a feature of Vennmo I’ll stay with only transferring cash to people with boring old Chase Quickpay with a bank account I don’t have to pay for wi…
Venmo was already acquired by PayPal last year. I don't think it's an acquisition target anymore.
Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are
#20Classic pre-venmo humor article
"Caltech Physicists Successfully Split the Bill".
http://www.theonion.com/article/caltech-physicists-successfu...
In the old days it could take as long to split the bill as to eat for a double digit dinner party. Not to mention cheapskates who conveniently forget beverages and appetizers.