PayPal Q1 Payments Volume Dips, Venmo User Base Grows

Payments app Venmo reached 40 million users at the end of Q1.

This is the first time parent company PayPal has revealed any user numbers for the app, with its Q1 earnings report showing that the total payments volume for Venmo grew 73 percent year over year to reach $21 billion. The company added that Venmo is on track to generate $100 billion in payments volume this year.

“Venmo continues its significant momentum,” said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, according to CNBC. “As user growth continues to accelerate, merchants are increasingly turning to Venmo as a way to attract a valuable and engaged consumer base.”

The app — which allows users to comment on payments and see what friends are spending on — has secured partnerships with merchants, including Chipotle, Grubhub and Uber. These relationships are an important way for Venmo, which is not yet profitable, to bring in revenue.

While Schulman noted that the app is expected to make $300 million in revenue this year, the company would not say when it is expected to turn a profit.

“We’re certainly pleased with the monetization of Venmo, and the rate at which that is progressing,” said PayPal Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready.

He also addressed a recent report that said the company was looking to launch a Venmo-branded credit card, which would be in addition to its already existing debit card.

“We have certainly seen great demand across our user base for more and more products from Venmo, and we are engaging with the banking system in a very broad way across PayPal and Venmo,” Ready said. “To be very clear, there is nothing beyond Venmo debit card that we are looking at at this time.”

PayPal’s Q1 earnings beat analyst expectations, with adjusted earnings of $.78 per share, compared with the $.68 per share forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates. Revenue for the quarter was steady with Wall Street’s $4.13 billion estimates. Total payments volume came in at $161 billion, a 25 percent increase year over year, but below the $163 billion that analysts expected.