Skype and PayPal Intermingle to Offer P2P Payments
There seems to be a growth market in social media that adds mobile payment services. WhatsApp looked to add payments, there was word about Paytm looking to add an entire social structure, and that was hardly the end of it. Now, Skype is taking that step in the payment field, calling on PayPal to provide necessary infrastructure to allow Skype users to send payments over a chat.
The resulting partnership is set to work in 22 different countries—mainly European markets and the bulk of North America—and will work on both Android and iOS versions of Skype. The overall design is said to work similarly to how it works in both iMessage and Slack, so those familiar with that procedure should be at home here.
This new connection comes at a good time for Skype, as just two months ago, it brought out a whole new version of Skype’s mobile app that offered some new Snapchat-style operations, but even had a few elements from Giphy and YouTube involved. PayPal is just the latest addition, and one that might be welcome for users.
Yet it’s easy to wonder here if perhaps Skype has come too late to the party. How many Skype users are already turning to Venmo or the like for P2P payments as it sits? This may be an overblown concern; Apple’s set to launch its own payment service and Zelle saw open market enough to take a run at the field, so maybe Skype isn’t too late after all. It’s easy to see that maybe Skype has missed its chance here and given apps like Venmo too much advance lead.
Trying to break entrenched users out of a market is a tough proposition for anyone and generally requires a value so particular and impressive that it’s hard not to pass it up. Skype doesn’t seem to be offering a value of that caliber, though it may be just trying to net ancillary business from those already using Skype.
Given that PayPal is actually connected to Venmo, though, this could be a prime opportunity for PayPal to play both sides of the fence and get ahead that way. Skype may not win much from this, but it’s not likely to hurt PayPal much.