Paypal's Secret App 'Venmo' Social Network Lets You Send Money to Friends

"Venmo", a US-only mobile payments service app that lets people send money to their friends. "Venmo" can be used to pair with people’s bank accounts to let them pay each other or request money, similar to Square Cash and Chase QuickPay. What differentiates it is that it allows its users to make payments and their associated messages public on social feeds that other users can comment on and like. It is available as free to download and mostly free to use.

This Paypal-owned app has unexpectedly created a buzz in the social culture and at the same time created many thorny problems. Interviews with some "Venmo" users revealed that they are finding ways to experience the app into a more social experience. According to CNET, this includes using the messages for crude and silly inside jokes, cataloging memorable events, sending money for drinks or making small amount of payments as a clever way of saying hi.

Cliff Lampe, a social-media professor at University of Michigan’s School of Information describes "Venmo" as not an inherently social app in the way of Facebook or Twitter, but it offers emotional support and the ability to keep in touch.

"Venmo" social feeds produced new behaviors among users and revealed how interactive payments can become. Picture this scenario through "Venmo"- in a typical usage, a person paying for a large dinner party with one’s credit card, then Venmo'ing requests to everyone else for their shares. The convenience of payment is redefined.

However, though "Venmo" has allowed for some new forms of interaction, it also has created problems. One is that the decision to expose the payments publicly made it controversial. Some think that they worry about privacy issues. Initially, new users seeing their friends paying with the startup service created a layer of trust, known as "social proof," But, in addition to that trust, the app is also being used in wrong ways. Since after all, it exists in the highly regulated banking industry.

"Venmo" is a product of a mashup of the payments and social worlds. According to App Annie, it was launched to the public five years ago. It doubled its user base last year to nearly 9 million, ahead of all but four US retail banking apps. PayPal stated that "Venmo" doubled its total transactions to $17.6 billion during the same time. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Venmo's users are millennials -- 10 percentage points higher than millennial darling Snapchat, as ComScore reported last year. This year, "Venmo" plans to tie up with retailers so people can use it more often and Venmo can make money off the business transactions side.