Snapchat Exits P2P

Snapchat is closing down Snapcash, its peer-to-peer payment space, on August 30.

According to reports, there is code buried in Snapchat’s Android app that has the following message: “Snapcash will no longer be available after %s [date]”.

The end of the feature also ends the company’s four year partnership with Square.

Although Snapcash was meant to be a way for users to split a restaurant bill with friends like any P2P service, it also became a way to pay adult performers for private content over Snapchat. In fact, a Twitter search for “Snapcash” found numerous offers of erotic content in exchange for payments through the service.

In addition, rival apps like Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and Square Cash give users plenty of ways to pay back friends, which might have resulted in low usage for Snapcash.

“Yes, we’re discontinuing the Snapcash feature as of August 30, 2018. Snapcash was our first product created in partnership with another company – Square,” a Snapchat spokesperson told reporters. “We’re thankful for all the Snapchatters who used Snapcash for the last four years and for Square’s partnership!”

The spokesperson added that users would be notified in-app and through the support site soon.

Cutting ties with the feature could be another way Snap is slashing costs. The firm burned through $1.1 billion in five quarters — not counting acquisitions. Experts says that Snap’s best bet in getting a cash infusion might be an investor looking to hold off Facebook. While Tencent might be the best choice as it is already an investor, other firms like Apple, Amazon or Google could be a possibility.

Of course, a sale could also happen. Snap has turned down purchase offers (most famously from Facebook), but the company could offer an attractive target for a behemoth tech firm. At a recent conference, CEO Evan Spiegel was non-committal about whether he’d be open to selling the company, saying only that he had a fiduciary duty to consider it.