Venmo

Venmo
Original author(s)
  • Andrew Kortina
  • Iqram Magdon-Ismail
Developer(s)Venmo, LLC (subsidiary of PayPal)
Initial release2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Operating systemAndroid, iOS
Available inEnglish
Websitevenmo.com

Venmo is an American mobile payment service founded in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2013. Venmo is aimed at users who wish to split their bills. Account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app; both the sender and receiver must live in the United States. Venmo also operates as a small social network, as users can observe other users' public transactions with posts and emoticons.[1] In 2021, the company handled $230 billion in transactions and generated $850 million in revenue.[2] Users can view transactions on the Venmo website but cannot complete transactions on the website.[3]

By default, Venmo publishes every peer-to-peer transaction (excluding the amount), a feature shown by researchers to reveal sensitive details about users' lives in some situations.[4][5] In 2018, the company settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about several privacy and security violations related to this and other features, and made changes to the corresponding settings. However, Venmo continued to attract criticism for exposing users to possible privacy risks.[5][4]

  1. ^ Bommer, William H.; Rana, Shailesh; Milevoj, Emil (April 25, 2022). "A meta-analysis of eWallet adoption using the UTAUT model". International Journal of Bank Marketing. 40 (4): 791–819. doi:10.1108/IJBM-06-2021-0258. ISSN 0265-2323. S2CID 247427504.
  2. ^ "Venmo Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022)". Business of Apps. May 4, 2022. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  3. ^ "What Is Venmo: How It Works". Money. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Cole, Samantha (August 28, 2019). "Venmo Is Still Exposing Your Connections to Everyone You. Know". Vice. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Paul, Kari (July 22, 2018). "The scary reasons you should make your Venmo account private". MarketWatch. Retrieved February 12, 2020.