PayPal plans to advance user features
These days cryptocurrencies are gaining mainstream adoption and digital payment firms are restructuring their platforms to manage the increasing cryptocurrency users. One such firm is PayPal as its CEO announced its plans to incorporate cryptocurrency and upgrade user features.
The head of PayPal Dan Schulman had a conference call with investors where he explained that the up-gradation of the functionalities is in progress. He also highlighted how the users of the Venmo application could receive their stimulus check for the first time directly from the app.
This new feature of PayPal depicts that the firm is paying close attention to its customer’s needs. Along with that Schulman also added that buying, selling, and holding digital currencies will also be possible in the Venmo app by the end of this month.
He said,
“Later in this month, our Venmo credit card will be available to 100% of our base. And in the coming months, we will launch the ability to buy, hold and sell crypto via the Venmo app. And finally, our revamped Pay with Venmo experience will launch in Q2, offering a best-in-class checkout experience.”
He further explained his plans to include advanced finance tools on the platform. Savings tools, a wide range of investment assets, and cryptocurrencies will be made accessible for all PayPal users. Excerpts from his statement read: “…to introduce even more functionality, including budget and savings tools, investment alternatives, including, but not limited to crypto, and enhanced bill pay options.”
During the conference call, it was also announced that PayPal’s fourth-quarter revenue crossed $6 billion, which is 3x times more than the previous year’s profit. The platform had 73 million new users registered and this year there are 50 million new accounts. The CEO gives all the credits of increased adoption to the QR code payment feature, where an upswing of 19% was recorded in payment volume.
As per Schulman, the “super app transcends across payments, commerce, and financial services, all of that on a common platform, all of that leveraging common data elements and machine learning on top of that to give next best recommendations.”
This new development is quite necessary for digital currencies to reach the mainstream fintech market. Using other platforms like Square, Mastercard following suit, Bitcoin could continue to remove a handful of fiat currencies along with sustaining its value over time.
