Venmo Looks to Branch Out from P2P Mobile Payments

Venmo has come a long way from a glitchy security nightmare to a modern, stand-up mobile payments system, and it largely did so on the back of one basic concept: peer to peer (P2P) payments.

It was a service that not many providers were offering, and that was point enough to get a lot of people interested. Now, Venmo’s looking to step things up a bit, and move from just passing cash from one person to another to passing cash from people to businesses.

Recently, Venmo started expanding its horizons, giving users access to payments to businesses, though only for a comparative handful of locations. The service called for users to use a mobile payment service as normal, but instead of users paying the fees associated with such an action, the fees were instead paid for by the businesses, who paid Venmo directly per transaction.

Why would businesses pay Venmo for such a service? It’s the other major feature of Venmo: its social network operations. Venmo users have the option to offer messages for public consumption about just what the payment went for, and commonly using the small characters known as emojis.

In this case, if a Venmo user pays for dinner with Munchery—a food delivery service—the result is posted openly on the Venmo feed, letting everyone know that someone paid for dinner with Munchery, effectively allowing the service to buy an ad with the transaction.

The most recent additions to the fray include not only Munchery, but also White Castle—yes, the one Harold and Kumar famously went to—and Gametime, known for its sports ticket sales. These are markets that would likely go along nicely with a social-media-focused generation, and would therefore likely benefit from having that additional social presence.

Naturally, not every business will be interested in such a service, but it’s a safe bet that there would likely be a lot of businesses that would. Anything geared toward millennials would likely find a Venmo connection useful, and we’ll likely hear more about businesses taking Venmo going forward. If it’s good enough to pass your buddies $20 for beer, it’s good enough to cover a $20 dinner tab at, say, Applebee’s.