Today is a glorious day for all Apple iPhone users. The company has invented a new built-in person-to-person feature to send cash through a text message, called “Apple Pay Cash”. First announced last June at a conference, “Apple Pay Cash” was unleashed on Monday allowing Apple users with the latest iPhone update in the US to send other iPhone users money via text messages.
This is a huge and bold step by Apple which critically threatens digital cash applications, such as: Venmo, Paypal and Square. Paypal spokesperson, said:
“As the world’s leading open digital payments platform, we welcome any developments that help people move away from the awkwardness of cash.”
While PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said: “We have seen a lot of services come into the market and Venmo continues to exhibit very strong growth — I think we will become increasingly differentiated.”
Unlike Venmo, for example, Apple Pay Cash is not a peer to peer payment method. It is a digital form of payment making it much more practical when it comes to sharing money with friends and family. Users can send or receive money via Apple imessage or by telling Siri to send money to someone. Users can receive payments on their “Apple Pay Cash Account” which they can use to make purchases or transfer it to their bank account. It is the quickest and most efficient way to send or receive money. Another attractive feature is that there does not seem to be any additional credit card or bank transaction fees with “Apple Pay Cash”.
While companies like Square and Paypal (from Venmo) have been trying so hard to make money by imposing extra charges on merchants to be able to use the service to receive payments, Apple is not concerned about making more money. In 2016, Apple made around $215 billion revenue by selling its products, so why Apple Pay Cash then?
According to fortune.com, “For Apple, payments are just another way to make its messaging app more useful, not more social. As Gerald Granovsky, senior vice president for financial firm Moody’s explained, Apple is playing catch up to PayPal. “But its real goal is to cement loyal users for life,” he said. [Monday’s] introductions will add a lot more stickiness to Apple’s loyal base.”
So how does it work exactly? Simple, from your home screen, tap on the App Store icon. Next, tap on the black Apple Pay icon in the dock.
