Venmo In-App Payments Exits Beta
P2P payment service Venmo is rolling out its in-app payment service to its entire user base, the company announced this week. In beta since early this year, the service became available to all Venmo users as of July 27. Venmo also announced additional merchant partners have come on board, bringing the number of merchants now accepting Venmo payments within their mobile apps to 11. The service enables users to make in-app purchases by tapping a Venmo button, split costs with friends and share purchases via social media.
In-app payments could represent a significant new revenue stream for Venmo, with merchants paying a fee for each transaction made using the service. Venmo is also preparing to move in-store, as part of a PayPal deal with Visa. About a month after announcing the in-app payment pilot, Venmo closed its API to new developers and e-merchants, meaning merchants that want to offer Venmo payments within their apps now need to partner directly with Venmo. Similar in-app payments services have been offered by the likes of Amazon, which expanded its “Pay with Amazon” button to mobile apps last year, and Venmo’s parent company, PayPal.
Since PayPal’s 2013 acquisition of Braintree brought Venmo under its umbrella, the P2P payments service has grown significantly. In its latest quarterly financial results, released last week, PayPal revealed that Venmo processed $3.9 billion in total payment volume for the quarter, up 141 percent year-over-year.
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