This article is reproduced with authorization from[Wu Zhizhang](ID: esnql520)

Author/Li Xiaowai

Editor/Wu Yandi

01

I want to talk about this topic directly because I saw that the US version of Huabei Affirm went up by more than 98% on the day it went public some time ago, and the stock price has already crossed $100.

The financial technology market is really hot, especially the payment track. The epidemic has forced the American public to start squatting at home, and even the way they spend money has to change.

Amazon temporarily expanded the recruitment of warehousing packers, and Uber Eats began to recruit takeout brothers. The speed of food delivery to China is finally about to infiltrate and infiltrate into North America, which is really amazing.

In the past, people in North America didn’t believe in the security of mobile phones. As long as countless software touched the red line of user privacy, they would break the battlefield.

Users with deep roots like Facebook can’t complain, and Xiaozha won’t admit it, but foreign companies and small local companies can still drown it with the saliva of the public.

So in terms of data security and user privacy, only they know how well the North American software has done it. Counting how many API interfaces are open, people are more cunning than people.

But the matter of paying and receiving money, after all, is about the security of the wallet. So people can understand how much they care about.

02

Looking at the payment track in the United States, companies such as Paypal were established early and built a reputation before the millennium, and their relationships and channels with banks and companies were also cleared in place.

If you accidentally pay the wrong amount, you can withdraw it in time to avoid loss. This kind of veteran player is just like the Alipay we are used to. The industry pioneers have different status in the arena, so they are naturally trustworthy.

Paypal is also capable. Tesla’s hero Elon Musk was once the CEO of Paypal. According to official data, its users reached 377 million in 2020, covering more than 100 currency types of transactions.

When the era of shifting from the PC terminal to the mobile terminal arrives, the competition on the mobile payment track will become more intense.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, came in to spoil the game and founded Square Cash, and Paypal has once again launched a payment software for millennials, Venmo.

The American public has learned that the Chinese people have begun to transfer money to collect money on their mobile phones, and the banks themselves are also anxious. Some banks have also joined forces to create a “US version of UnionPay” called Zelle. Participants include JP Morgan, Bank of America BOA and Wells Fargo.

In addition, Google Pay also launched a new red envelope news during the New Year, and Facebook has also launched its own payment channel. Apple Pay can transfer money directly in iMessage, and it can also be opened in its own ecology.

But let’s not mention these small-scale companies, the data of the main three companies are still very tight. For example, around 2018, Venmo’s trading volume was still at the bottom, and it has now been on the rise.

So looking at these three companies based on the data, Zelle has a large transaction volume because of the bank’s endorsement, and user trust is relatively high. But the development of Square Cash has been relatively slow.

However, Square also has card readers, cashiers and other businesses. Although it has not been profitable, it must be a problem for a while.

03

Back to the original question, can mobile payment succeed in social networking?

Ever since WeChat red envelopes broke the game with the help of WeChat’s “connecting people with people”, WeChat Pay began to ride the wind and waves.

Although there are many Chinese people, no one wants to watch the opponent grow bigger and helpless, so if you touch my cake, don’t blame me for doing it in your territory.

Although these are all jokes, no matter what the people inside the besieged city say, from the perspective of outsiders, Alipay has always had the heart to be social.

When “Laiwang” came out that year, it was rumored that every employee had the task of recruiting 300 employees, and it was directly linked to the KPI at the end of the year.

In the instant messaging market at that time, the data traffic was not yet parity. Yixin can now send text messages and phone calls free of charge, and the users are rising steadily. Of course, Ding Lei is happy, so he won’t be able to speak anymore.

When evaluating several mobile IM products, Ding Lei said that he has a negative score, 0 for Yixin, and 5 for WeChat.

After hearing this, Ma Yun began to choke back, “Some people say that the relationship is dead, we just insist on letting the relationship live one more day; now we will have a full moon for the relationship, and in the future we will celebrate the birthday for the relationship, and pass it year after year.”

Both students from Hangzhou, why are you too anxious? When I was young, I made products, but it was just a battle of saliva.

04

But Venmo in the United States actually incorporates social attributes. This is also the reason why its stamina is so great.

We mentioned in the SHEIN article that the spending of young Americans was only $3,023 at the peak of this decade. Please note that this is an annual cost, not every month. So on average, it is about RMB 2,000 per month.

2000 yuan a month, there are now some college students in China who have more generous hands than this. Therefore, young people in the United States will not go to high-end restaurants when they go out to eat. If there are no guests, the AA system is normal.

The key is that many small restaurants or dining trucks limit the number of cards per table, or even only accept cash, because the more the card is swiped, the more bank charges will be paid. In this case, only one person can pay, and the others will pay. Transfer the money to her.

Does the resulting transfer and payment scene sound more familiar?

But the more interesting thing is that Venmo’s transfer information flow is public. Of course, it refers to the situation where you set up “non-private” when you pay a friend. There are three statuses for each transfer: public, among friends, and personal.

But even if mutual friends see the transfer information between you, the amount will be hidden.

But why do you pay your friends, where, what activities, what restaurants, and what you eat? This information may be disclosed or seen by mutual friends. Mutual friends can even like to comment on your transaction information, you can also reply, and a few people happily play the next round in the comment section.

An interesting survey in the United States showed that some emoji expressions are used extensively because one sentence can be added to describe the purpose or event of the payment.

Among them, Pizza has the highest expression usage. Young people in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Chicago especially love it. Compared to the red wine expressions in New York and the capital, Washington, the chain of contempt for the US East and the West is understandable.

The people of Fancy’s east coast are flirting and discussing business in the Bar in suits and leather shoes, which is like the big pants legging on the west coast, they will only chew on carbon water bombs after the exercise.

There is also an interesting piece of information in this picture. The most expensive scenario for using emoji is in renting a house. It seems that there are still quite a lot of people sharing rent.

05

In fact, Alipay also has a lot of “light socializing”.

Look at the ant forest. You steal your friend’s energy. If he doesn’t go out to ride a bicycle and pay offline, you can’t get his energy. After all, he is out to play, so you can grab some grams.

This is the same as the WeChat sports ranking of steps. You have to go out and have steps before you can be on the list to achieve the possibility of social interaction. The other person may think in his heart, “Is this guy likes sports as much as I do”, and a common topic will soon come up.

Like Venmo’s “AA that can describe which restaurant to eat and which social event”, it actually comes with a little extra information. This kind of information can help users find common ground, but it’s not too private.

This is the so-called “light social” model.

Venmo actually promotes this kind of light socialization. For example, in events like the Super Bowl, your friend paid for beer for you. When you transfer it to him, just enter super, and the system will automatically pop up the Superbowl tag. It can be seen that it hopes that you will find your interests and achieve a kind of community relationship.

However, highly personal information such as transactions becomes available for dissemination on public platforms, and the boundary between public and private tends to become more blurred.

People with a sense of boundary may feel a little uncomfortable when using Venmo. Who do I eat with, where do I date, and why should I let others know?