I was one of the early adopters of Venmo. Here's my take on it:

* Venmo launched the first out of all the systems you mentioned

* Venmo was one of the few (maybe only) system that allows you to pay users who are not on their system. Say you need to pay Joe and you were a Venmo user but Joe wasn't. You could still "pay" them on venmo and they would get a text back saying if they signed up they would get the payment. No one else did this well when they launched

* Venmo integrated with facebook so many of the people I needed to pay were already in the system

* Venmo was the first free system to use

* Venmo was the first mobile friendly system to use. It was the first major system where I could split the bill real time at a restaurant

* Venmo paid early adopters to join (I think I received $2 to make my first payment)

It seems like a clear case of first mover advantage. I'm sure the systems you mentioned are now better, but at the time Venmo had the best UX and now that everyone I need to pay is on it, why would I switch? The few cents of interest loss I lose every year isn't worth finding out if everyone I need to pay is on one of the alternative systems.

> Venmo was one of the few (maybe only) system that allows you to pay users who are not on their system. Say you need to pay Joe and you were a Venmo user but Joe wasn't. You could still "pay" them on venmo and they would get a text back saying if they signed up they would get the payment.

If someone "paid" me this way, there would be issues.

I tried Venmo and it has what I consider a fatal bug: it doesn’t work with joint bank accounts. So if my wife has the app and transfers her Venmo balance to our account, I can’t also do that with my Venmo balance. They tell me to first transfer to her account then to the bank, which is...well, pretty hacky. You’d think they would be able to fix that one.

That makes sense, there really wasn't a good system beforehand for paying others.

My primary concern with Venmo holding the cash is that I'd much rather have my bank in charge of it than some other random entity - The fact that it's now Paypal-owned doesn't help either

PayPal was doing most of this years ago - and keeping your transactions private...

PayPal didn't have a decent mobile app and it charged for all card transactions (credit or debit).

If i'm sitting in a restaurant with friends, I'm not going to ask each of them for their email/paypal IDs so I can charge them when you can already get that info in venmo.

Paypal was missing all the core features:

* Paypal did not integrate with facebook (does it even do that now?) so I would have to manually ask each person for their paypal id. Not fun for casual dinners with new friends

* Paypal was not free (they charged for debit or credit)

* Paypal did not have a good mobile UX

I remember this because the reason I adopted Venmo was because my roommates were searching for a solution to split rent and we looked at Paypal and ended up choosing Venmo. Then I started using it for social activities (restaurants, taxis, bars, etc.) and became an active user. I actually have had Paypal since the ebay days, but I never use it.

Imo purely user experience and maybe first mover / network effects. I know it's the worst option yet it continues to be the go-to option because it's the most likely service that random friend A or B will have.

This!! Why why why do people even like Venmo? It is such a bad product and the basic premise of social payments is just totally nuts.

I’ll tell you one reason why, and maybe your curiosity will lead you down further rabbit holes.

I use Venmo exclusively for sending money to girls from Tinder. If you look at my stream, you’ll see transactions sending money to tons of babes, often with suggestive comments. Other girls sometimes see this, and decide they too want in on the action.

Pretty great what giving out some dollars on the internet can do for your rep. For a developer making six figures in Silicon Valley, it should be no big deal at all.

Do you mean sending money to prostitutes? I try to avoid those on Tinder.

No, I mean sending money to women.

I'm confused about the distinction. You send women money you are hooking up with, you advertise to other women that if they hook up with you, you will also send them money. Very fine line you are drawing. Not judging, good for you!

I don’t hook up with most of them.

So you are a sugar daddy...

That's brilliant

A few clicks sounds like at least a few clicks - 1 too many.

Agreed, I simply believe it's still our responsibility to maintain the privacy settings if we disagree with the terrible defaults