It’s survey and study season, with Paypal’s latest showing the need for native app P2P payments functionality while beating Apple to the widespread iOS 11 P2P payments punch.
P2P or peer-to-peer technology has long since moved past being merely a description and technology for the way intellectual property abusers share copyright protected content without proper payment with each other.
P2P is now also a description on how to share actual payments with your peers, with PayPal using a marketing stunt to promote P2P payments between people in its updated PayPal app.
One headline finding from PayPal’s new study is that “84% of Australian millennials feel awkward or stingy when it comes to asking their mates to pay them back,” with 94% of millennials having paid for a friend, leading to “nearly half” or 44% of those millennials apparently “almost $400 in debt every year” from shouting a mate a coffee.
Part of PayPal’s solution to this is making P2P payments via its app easier, and to kickstart its marketing stunt, is giving “3000 Aussies $3.50 to pay back a mate” while calling upon “Generation Stinge to ‘pony up’.”
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Of course, there are plenty more details when it comes to owing money to mates, with the survey showing it goes far deeper than just owing a friend for a humble morning cuppa.
It turns out that “millennials owe their friends money for splitting lunch and dinner bills (29%), drinks (29%), movie tickets (17%), taxis and Ubers (16%), birthday presents (15%) and even household bills (12%) and rent (9%).”
Now, because millennials (and I guess people in general) can be a sensitive bunch, a quarter of these millennial Aussie youngsters are “worried about ruining a friendship if they talk about money.”
While we should probably all grow a set and just shirtfront those who are lax in paying back their borrowings, that’s obviously far easier said than done - or at least, for some.
Thus, PayPal advises it “is helping Aussies to avoid the awkward by simplifying the payback process and challenging Australian millennials to pay back their mates for all outstanding debts” by using its app.
That’s where the aforementioned marketing stunt comes back into play, with PayPal shopping Expert Emily Curlewis stating that “PayPal is taking the first step by transferring the cost of a coffee ($3.50) to 3 thousand millennial PayPal users in Australia, urging them to pay back a friend or colleague via the PayPal app, which is quicker and much easier than a bank transfer.”
Curlewis wants us to start dealing with this curly issue, and she states that: “The socially-accepted ‘I’ll shout you the next one’ mentality has created a generation in hock to their buddies, so we want to kick-start the pay-back process and show Aussie millennials just how easy it can be to pay back their mates using the PayPal App.”
Of course, your mates actually have to have some spare money to pay you back with, which might be part of the issue why they’re avoiding paying you back in the first place, but the entire discussion is also a clever way to get the PayPal app into the millennial conscience, which is no surprise whatsoever.
So, what specifically does this new-fangled P2P functionality within the PayPal app specifically let you do?
Well, it simply lets you “send, request and receive money quickly.”
Naturally, using the PayPal app has advantages - there’s no need to “swap BSB and account numbers,” or worry about bank transfer lag times.
As you’d expect, PayPal proudly boasts its “app is easy to use, and Australians who use PayPal to be paid quickly and seamlessly with just a mobile number or email address.”
If your friends don’t already have a PayPal account, easy! They can open one for free. Did you expect anything different?
Curlewis added: “From our data, we know that 60% of millennials have made an excuse for not paying their friends back, ranging from not having cash (29%) to just forgetting (28%) and not being able to find an ATM (10%). It’s almost as if millennials are playing a game of hide-and-seek with their mates, and are constantly awkward about their debts.
“We want to make paying your housemates, workmates, friends and loved ones back easy. It’s about creating an experience that removes the tension we feel when we owe, and are owed, money,” Curlewis continued.
PayPal also tells us its data shows that “talking about money is creating friction within the millennial friendship group,” with “39% of millennials” stating they’re “irritated when their friend doesn’t pay them back” and 15% admitting “that they could be better at returning owed money to their mate.”
Curlewis concluded; “Aussie millennials are constantly on their mobiles, with 74 per cent responding that they won’t go anywhere without them. PayPal has made it easy for them to use a simple app to break the shackles of money awkwardness with their friends.
“With the PayPal app’s P2P function, all you need is an email address or mobile number to quickly send the money you owe or request money owed to you. It makes it easy to avoid awkward conversations and pay back your friends – just ‘PayPal it’.”
Of course, if you forget how to PayPal it, you can Google it, there’ll surely be a guide from PayPal online or even a link to this or similar articles on the topic.
That said, Paypal’s site explains that you choose who to pay, hit send, and you’re done. It also says that you can send money “for free”, noting that “when you send money to friends or family in Australia from your linked bank account or PayPal balance, it’s free for you and your recipient. You can also send money from your credit or debit card, or to someone overseas, but that’ll incur a small fee,” with those fees listed here.
So, with the PayPal app on the iOS App Store and on Google Play, PayPal’s mission to indoctrinate you into using its app, and its excuse that it’s all about forgetful and sensitive mates paying each other back over debts, has worked - or at least, has worked into getting you to read this article - whether you download and give it a go is up to you!
For more info on PayPal, which you could sneakily send to a recalcitrant friend as a not so subtle hint, click on this link at PayPal’s site - or send them a link to this article!
