Send Money to Friends in Messenger • Hacker News Board

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#141

Post by sjbase » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:34 PM UTC

A lot of people are commenting about Facebook being "yet another entrant" into the wallet & payment game. I'd enjoy the ease and simplicity of having everyone on a single payment platform as much as the next guy, but it's simply not realistic. There's too much at stake for Google, Apple, Paypal, Square etc. to just give up.

Instead, I could see this taking a similar direction as web authentication: instead of "Login with Google+" or "Login with Facebook" buttons, you have "Send $ to Google Wallet" in your FB-pay interface.

I'd also point out that Facebook, by virtue of having a ton of data about their users, is well positioned to do things like identity assertion and fraud analytics; two of the more critical aspects of digital payment. Makes sense to me that they join the fray.

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#142

Post by alanmoo » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:34 PM UTC

macNchz wrote: post #50

zacharypinter wrote: post #6

At this point, I just want one of these pay-with-your-phone solutions to win and be ubiquitous. The current situation is almost comical. "Do you have Venmo? Haven't set that up yet, can you send over Paypal?. No, what about Square Wallet? Nope, what about Gmail?"

At least for my demographic in NYC it feels like Venmo has enough traction that there isn't much friction if you ask to be paid/pay with Venmo. Enough people have it that the odd one out who doesn't feels compelled to sign up, and the onboarding is also fast enough that people can sign up while waiting for the check at a restaurant, for example.

I blame Lucas.

Seriously though, I don't like Venmo's "cash out" approach, but maybe that's because I don't use it enough to want to carry a Venmo balance.

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#143

Post by gesman » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:39 PM UTC

Finally, i can satisfy the urge to send money to friends.

Seriously?

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#144

Post by untog » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:39 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #32

zacharypinter wrote: post #6

At this point, I just want one of these pay-with-your-phone solutions to win and be ubiquitous. The current situation is almost comical. "Do you have Venmo? Haven't set that up yet, can you send over Paypal?. No, what about Square Wallet? Nope, what about Gmail?"

Simple dominates all of these, in my opinion. It is perfect from a user experience side. (If people already have the service, but people really want the service for more than the mobile payments part)

But it involves people signing up for a new bank. The barrier to entry for Simple is huge.

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#145

Post by Vraxx » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:40 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #87

bobsky wrote: post #5

A natural addition. And just like Square Cash, just enter bank issued debit card for fee-free transactions. Now if it would work outside the US and in-between different countries, that'd be the killer app. Is there anything close to that dream?

> just enter bank issued debit card for fee-free transactions. IIRC, Square is only able to do this by abusing the "refund" feature of debit cards to credit money to those accounts. I read an article a while back that claimed the banks were not happy about this, and considering shutting it down (or rate-limiting it) in the future.

I believe that was only speculation as to the method.. Though the alternative that was speculated was transfers at a loss to Square (with an increased user base as the motive).

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#146

Post by curiously » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:41 PM UTC

"Dear Sir/Madam,"

"I am a wealthy Nigerian heir of our national oil company. I need my funds unlocked but unfortunately do not have $100 for internet access. Please send $100 and you will get your share of my inheritance in the billions of dollar."

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#147

Post by Freeboots » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

Far from the first person to mention it, but im fairly sure we have had this for a while.

http://i.imgur.com/lczQmNQ.png

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#148

Post by ecma » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:45 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #71

macNchz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for my demographic in NYC it feels like Venmo has enough traction that there isn't much friction if you ask to be paid/pay with Venmo. Enough people have it that the odd one out who doesn't feels compelled to sign up, and the onboarding is also fast enough that people can sign up while waiting for the check at a restaurant, for example.

All that says is that Venmo has traction among your immediate peers. If Paypal/Square wallet/Bitcoin had the same traction, the rest of your comment would still be hold.

In fact this is just the second time I've heard about Venmo and I don't care remotely. My peer group is heavily PayPal based and therein lies the issue - fragmentation suddenly becomes painfully obvious when you try to pay someone you've not sent money to before or you go to a new store which has decided to use the new hotness which you've never even heard of.

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#149

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:46 PM UTC

grubles wrote: post #121

ForHackernews wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an either-or proposition here. But let's get real, bitcoin combines the ease-of-use of sendmail.cf with the stable value of the Russian ruble.

So you think bitcoin is harder than: 1. Learning how to open a bank account (requires tons of personal information) 2. Learning how and why to use a debit/credit card (insecure) 3. Signing up for (requires e-mail) facebook and tying your credit card to it to send money ?

The hard part of bitcoin is keeping all the devices you use it on perfectly uncompromised and backed up.

Re: Send Money to Friends in Messenger

#150

Post by frozenport » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 8:46 PM UTC

astazangasta wrote: post #117

zacharypinter wrote: post #6

At this point, I just want one of these pay-with-your-phone solutions to win and be ubiquitous. The current situation is almost comical. "Do you have Venmo? Haven't set that up yet, can you send over Paypal?. No, what about Square Wallet? Nope, what about Gmail?"

It's bizzare that our financial sector is the largest area of the economy and yet has not managed to produce any innovation in this regard. Shouldn't banks be giving us easy ways to transfer money? Isn't this their function? Financial services?

Do you think these companies have contracts with all the banks, everywhere in the world?

The back-end is made from ACH/SWIFT which are indeed from traditional financial services. Access to these key services is restricted for liability reasons, although you can indeed make a wiretransfer from most bank accounts online. I can do 4 of these a month without any charges.