What is Venmo?
Venmo is a free, social smartphone app used to make and receive digital payments
Venmo is a free, social smartphone app used to make and receive digital payments.
Users can see what payments or requests are being made to and by other users, but the exact amounts are kept private for other payers and receivers to view.
"It's the money app for splitting the cost of almost anything — right then, right there," a description of the Venmo app reads. "Because it makes setting up feel like catching up. Because you can add a note to each payment to remember the moments, not the money."
"Mobile wallet" company PayPal acquired Venmo and its parent company, tech startup Braintree, for $800 million in 2014. Venmo has since become more profitable and more popular than PayPal. Venmo has nearly 8 million reviews and an average rating of about five-out-of-five stars while PayPal has 3 million reviews and the same rating.
FOR MILLENIALS, VENMO IS AN EMOTIONAL WRECKING BALL
Venmo's popularity has surged among young users who use the app to make payments as big as monthly rent and as small as splitting a happy-hour bill with friends. In 2018, Venmo processed $62 billion worth of payments — a 76 percent increase compared to payments processed in 2017, according to its 2018 fourth-quarter earnings published in April.
The app, which markets itself as "an easy way to pay and get paid," eliminates the need for cash, checks or other payment methods.
Venmo also prides itself on the amount of time that payments take to process from one user to another. It takes a day or two for payments to process free of charge, or users can pay a small fee for near-instant transactions.
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Additional Venmo features include a Venmo card, which allows users to use their Venmo balances to shop "everywhere Mastercard is accepted in the U.S., plus cashback," as well as on other mobile apps.