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Venmo Is Going All In On Mobile Payments (appleinsider.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the welcome-to-2018 dept.

Venmo, the PayPal-owned, peer-to-peer payments app, is ending web support for its service. When the changes are all rolled out, users will only be able to make payments and charge users via the iOS or Android app. TechCrunch reports: The message to users was quietly shared in the body of Venmo's monthly transaction history email. It reads as follows: "NOTICE: Venmo has decided to phase out some of the functionality on the Venmo.com website over the coming months. We are beginning to discontinue the ability to pay and charge someone on the Venmo.com website, and over time, you may see less functionality on the website -- this is just the start. We therefore have updated our user agreement to reflect that the use of Venmo on the Venmo.com website may be limited."

The decision represents a notable shift in product direction for Venmo. Though best known as a mobile payments app, the service has also been available online, similar to PayPal, for many years.

13 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb, dumb, dumb by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I say this as someone who does most of his texting via a desktop computer, but if something doesn't work with a real computer, then it's just toy tech. It's bad enough when social media sites go mobile only (more sad when it's just a web view for the app) and will only do push notifications vs email alerts. Something that's supposed to be universal should not be restricted to mobile devices.

    1. Re:Dumb, dumb, dumb by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      With a desktop app, they can't track location and it is easier to share an account, and thus makes it harder to track payments to a particular individual. For instance, my family all share one PayPal account.

      Venmo is "free", so you are the product. You are worth less, and are apparently worthless, when accessing the service from the desktop.

    2. Re:Dumb, dumb, dumb by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is why Zelle is killing Venmo. It is a product provided by banks to their customers. If banks don't want to get on board with Zelle, they risk losing customers to banks that do.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    3. Re:Dumb, dumb, dumb by jhecht · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Zelle couldn't deliver a payment to me a few months back because I don't use a smartphone to access my bank account.

    4. Re: Dumb, dumb, dumb by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      I can't imagine using a mobile device for financial transactions. I recently did, however, use a website to order more paper checks to pay bills with.

      I have plenty of 'accounts' and online relationships with non-financial organisations. I have zero interest in establishing motre passwords, particularly with organisations I pay money to. The mortgage, gas and electrical bills are paid with a stamp.

    5. Re: Dumb, dumb, dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Automatic withdrawal is an ugly situation where, once it is approved and enabled, cannot be discontinued on the account owner's side - only from the business recipient. I've argued round-and-round with my bank on multiple occasions to the point of simply saying, "fine! If you won't disable the automatic transaction then I'm closing the entire account and moving to a different bank."

    6. Re:Dumb, dumb, dumb by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      With a desktop app, they can't track location and it is easier to share an account, and thus makes it harder to track payments to a particular individual. For instance, my family all share one PayPal account.

      Venmo is "free", so you are the product. You are worth less, and are apparently worthless, when accessing the service from the desktop.

      I think it's closer to a duplication of services. Venmo is for social payments - you use it when you want to split the bill with friends but don't carry cash, so you use Venmo when you're out to to send the payer your share of the bill.

      While you're at the desktop, there's no reason to use Venmo - if you wanted to pay, you use Paypal at the desktop.

      And that's where they want to draw the line - Venmo is for out-and-about payments that you do (which you may have done with cash, but since everyone's going all electronic, you use your phone to send your friend the money). You use Paypal for regular payments that can occur over the internet.

      Considering Venmo is owned and operated by Paypal, this makes sense - why have two sites to do the same thing? Twice the work and one site will never be able to do something the other site can. So Paypal concentrates on being able to be the payment processor for websites and individuals, and Venmo be the "social" payment app friends use to send money between themselves. This would allow them to use technologies like NFC to tap money between accounts and such.

      Also kind of reinforces the repayment immediately - just as people reimburse others immediately, you'd use Venmo the same way - not getting home and remembering you owe Bob $10 for your lunch.

  2. Are they wanting access to your location & mic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those were the two main reasons my company dropped our web site and went to only an iOS app. We wanted to confirm the location of our users and record a verbal confirmation of actions. It's terrible for privacy, but has saved us several times when someone claimed they didn't do something and we could play the recording and show their location to their boss. It's hard to deny, for example, placing an order after we recorded the employee's location at their house.

  3. Venmo sounds like a combination of ... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Venmo sounds like a combination of "Venom" and "Vomit." The latter is the reaction to their latest move: I'll sooner just give you cash or write a check.

  4. Skeevy... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Informative

    Isn't Venmo/Venom/Vomit the company that also makes users' transactions public as part of some sort of "social network"?

  5. App only = proprietary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is just as bad as making an Internet Explorer only app. Don’t have the latest phone or on a phone the devs don’t support like Windows phone? Then you lose your money. We still need open source money (and real open source, not “crypto”currency).

  6. Re:Are they wanting access to your location & by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Scammer could as well be using an Android emulator and a VPN :D

  7. Obvious what is happening here. by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Obvious what is happening here, Venmo can violate your privacy and operate malware on your device more efficiently with an app than a browser interface, because browsers are starting to get pretty secure. Whereas even without exploits (of which there are no shortage) Venmo can easily trick or coerce user victims into clicking those privacy invasion/spyware authorization buttons.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.