Mobile Payments By the Numbers: What a Venmo Clone Might Cost

The pace of development in the mobile payments market hasn’t exactly been stable. We’ve seen organizations dawdle, while others develop with an almost frantic speed. One point that has never really seem to come up before is just what kind of resources it takes to develop a mobile payments mechanism.  AppInventiv took a look at just what it takes, and the answer will likely surprise you.

AppInventiv listed about a dozen separate functions that Venmo could take on, including the ability to make payments, the ability to link to bank accounts and debit cards, and the ability to request money. It looked at the kind of data encryption it used to help provide security, as well as the establishment of a PIN code system.

It also acknowledged that Venmo isn’t just a payments app. One of the biggest points that makes Venmo stand out from the others in the field is Venmo’s social capabilities.

As for the cost, meanwhile, AppInventiv estimates that another Venmo could be made for a shockingly low price tag. It estimates a new Venmo could be made for between $100,000 and $150,000 US, which is about the price of a house in some places. AppInventiv expects it would cost closer to $150,000 than $100,000, owing in large part to the app’s required level of complexity, but the range should be accurate.

Some may be skeptical of these figures, and with good reason. If all it cost to build a competitor to Venmo was what amounted to the cost of a small house in the country, then why were all those banks and mobile device makers dragging their feet for so long? Sure, no one wants to waste money, but for large firms, $150,000 is equivalent to the maybe $10 the average person might spend on lottery tickets. Additionally, some potential makers may not have wanted to just wheel out a competitor for the sake of it; after all, not even Apple got in on the P2P front until well after Venmo.

It’s likely to be a surprise to many that a Venmo competitor could be built on the comparatively cheap, but “Field of Dreams” logic just doesn’t apply here. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.