It was reported a few months ago that Apple was working on its own peer-to-peer money transfer service to rival the likes of Venmo. The service would presumably exist under the Apple Pay umbrella, enabling users to easily and quickly transfer money to each other in a manner not too different from Square Cash and Venmo. According to a new report, Apple’s work on this payment transfer service still continues.
Re/code reports that Apple has been having discussions with the payment industry about the service that it’s building. The report claims that this service might be launched as early as this year.
Much like Venmo and its competitors, Apple’s new service would enable iPhone users to transfer money to each other quickly using their mobile phones. Apple has reportedly held talks with Visa for a prepaid debit card service which would be tied to peer-to-peer payment transfers.
This might result in a Visa debit card co-branded with Apple which will enable the company’s users to even make purchases at retailers using their cards.
It’s not like Apple is going to have an open playing field if it does launch such a service. The market is already crowded by companies like Square Cash, PayPal, Venmo, and even Facebook.
Yes, Apple has the advantage of having hundreds of millions of iPhone users, but it’s not exactly going to be an easy ride for the company’s peer-to-peer payment transfer service.
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