P2P Payments Surge as Firms Pursue ‘Everything App’ Vision

Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments are booming, with transaction volumes rising by 25%. This surge is caused by a growing number of businesses racing into the P2P market, eager to capitalize on global consumer demand for easy and convenient payment options, as detailed in proprietary research created for the PYMNTS’ “Quarterly Payments Report: Mobile Wallets Gain Ground.”

As detailed in the study, this trend resonates with consumers who increasingly favor digital and contactless payment methods, reflecting a broader shift towards prioritizing efficiency and enhancing user experiences.

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is one of the major companies embracing this trend, recently announcing that it will incorporate P2P payments into its platform this year. The move is part of the business’s larger plan to become an “everything app,” offering consumers a wide range of services via a single platform.

As the company noted in a Tuesday (Jan. 9) blog post, “X is not just another app — it’s becoming the everything app, seamlessly uniting experiences into one interface, for everyone.”

African startup Union54 has also launched a super app in partnership with Mastercard, joining the dozens of homegrown African super apps operating across the continent.

Initially launched last July in Angola, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, the ChitChat app provides secure messaging, dollar-based virtual cards and access to a Mastercard USD debit card as well as payments, gaming and food services to users across the region, PYMNTS reported at the time.

“We believe that mobile payments and chat platforms can be a powerful force for increasing trade across Africa, and we are committed to building a platform that accelerates this,” said Perseus Mlambo, CEO of Union54, per a Disrupt Africa report. “We’ve built payments into a chat platform, giving everyone a USD card on demand — on our terms.”

In Europe, one of the French FinTech unicorns aiming for super app status is Lydia, a mobile financial services platform that started out as a P2P app in 2013 and has since grown to offer its 7 million-plus users loans, savings accounts and cryptocurrency trading in addition to other services.

Lydia CEO Cyril Chiche said in a 2022 interview with PYMNTS  that the company plans to serve 10 million European consumers by 2025 and aims to bridge the gap left by traditional banks by becoming a financial super app for millennials and Gen Z consumers.

“What [users] want is something that is on par with Spotify and Airbnb and all these major category-defining companies in other sectors,” Chiche said. “We don’t have this for banks, and we need one and we actually want a multiple of them.”

This pursuit of a super app aligns with global consumer preferences, as revealed by PYMNTS Intelligence research, which draws on insights from a survey of consumers across multiple countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany.

According to the study, approximately 7 in 10 survey respondents displayed interest in the super app concept, with the level of interest in a super app rising along with respondents’ income and level of tech integration. Even so, within the lowest income bracket, more than 60% of consumers express interest in a super app, indicating a widespread appeal across diverse economic segments.

“Overall, approximately one-quarter are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ interested in a super app, and consumers who have fully integrated connective technology into their lives are approximately twice as likely as other respondents to exhibit this high interest,” the report further added.

In terms of age demographics, millennials are the most interested in super apps, another PYMNTS Intelligence study revealed, with 40% of them being “very” or “extremely interested” in using a centralized tool that enables them to manage payments and other everyday activities all in one place.

“This means they are much more likely than the average consumer across the four countries studied [the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany] who would like to use such an app,” that report noted.