Snapchat Out of Mobile Payments Market; Snapcash to Close This August

If you’ve been using the Snapcash mobile payments system that’s part of Snapchat, then I have some terrible news for you. Snap—Snapchat’s parent company—recently announced plans to shut down the Snapcash app at the end of August. So those who used the mobile payments system will have to get a new option going. Thankfully, there are plenty of those still out there, so your migration likely won’t be much of a challenge.

Early word of the shutdown arrived after Techcrunch spotted a shift in the Snapchat Android app code suggesting a shutdown was to come. Snap itself confirmed later on, noting that it would inform users of its decision “soon”.

Okay, great, but what actually brought the four-year partnership to a halt? Some cite the growing competition in the field that’s actually going to make finding a new option easy; just look at Venmo and Zelle, as well as the recently-revamped Google Pay. There are also old friends like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and even PayPal itself to some extent to consider.

Word from Techcrunch also suggests that Snap may have been heading off a PR disaster brewing; reports suggest that Snapcash was often used to “sell erotic content,” a use that Snap likely didn’t want Snapcash connected to. Regardless of motive, the move comes at a bad time for Snapchat; it’s been frantically trying to grow its user base and beat Wall Street estimates.

This isn’t good news for Snap, but there is some good news in that those users about to be forcibly displaced are readily able to pick a different platform of choice. We all knew that, at some point, some market offerings had to buckle and close down; there’s too much competition in the field for it not to happen. While most businesses can accept reduced profitability from mobile payments—for many, it’s just an extra service added for more cash flow like in the case of Apple, Samsung and the like—it’s not so easy a proposition for some. Those that don’t succeed when they must, therefore, are likely to fold.

The mobile payments field is still a young market. Look for more firms to enter and exit for at least a while yet, though this is cold comfort at best to now-former Snapcash users.