People no longer get the heart in the mouth while paying online. Among all online payment methods, an eWallet is the most popular payment channel. So, looking at the profitable market and large user base, entrepreneurs are deploying more and more eWallets in the market. But a Facebook-like- eWallet which allows users to share and comment on every transaction their friends make is something as rare as a flying pig!

In this blog, you will get to know,

• Types of eWallets
• About one of the very unique eWallets, Venmo
• App features of Venmo which you have to ask eWallet app development company to add in your app.
• Opportunities and challenges for eWallets
• How much does it cost to develop an eWallet app like Venmo?

Types of eWallets you need to know before going for eWallet app development

 
There are major five types of eWallets. These are,

Open wallet

The open wallet lets users buy goods and services. It also enables the users to withdraw the cash and transfer the fund. Generally, an eWallet which is offered by banks or an eWallet which has exclusively tied up with banks can be considered as an open wallet. M-Pesa is the best example of an open wallet.

Semi-open wallet

Semi-open wallet only lets users transact with merchants who have a contract with the companies. This type of wallet doesn’t act like a bank. Instead, semi-open wallet relies on the banks which processes the user’s request to top up money in eWallet from the bank.

Closed wallet

Only E-commerce sites offer closed wallet to store the money of users in the case of refund.

Semi-closed wallet

Semi-closed wallet allows users to purchase goods and services from the registered merchants. However, a semi-closed wallet doesn’t permit cash withdrawal.

Social wallet

The social wallet has all features like a semi-closed wallet, but it works on the principle of sharing. Users can make friends, share the payments and comment on their friends’ payments. They get all notifications like a social media app and they can see the transaction activity of their friends in the news feed.

Venmo which is the social networking enabled eWallet was founded by Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail in 2009. In one of his interviews, Andrew stated that they initially wanted to build the payment solution for their friend’s yogurt shop. While building it, they found out how terrible point of sales software was at that time. And then one day, when Magdon-Ismail forgot his wallet during a trip to visit Andrew, they decided to employ learning and inspiration they had got while developing a payment solution for the yogurt shop to build the seamless way of payment. Their initial service enabled users to send money through the SMS, but eventually, with the evolving of advanced FinTech app development techniques, they developed a dedicated mobile app. In 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree which had already acquired Venmo in 2012.

Venmo includes the social networking interaction which was created to split the bills between friends quickly. When a user pays somewhere using Venmo eWallet, the transaction details are shared on the news feed like a social media app. However, Venmo does offer some privacy setting. Users can select any one privacy setting option from the three available options – ‘World Wide’ , ‘friends only’ and ‘personal’.

Because of this exclusive feature, people embraced Venmo, unlike any other mobile app. Following graph clearly depicts that how rapid growth Venmo has witnessed during its initial years.

Moreover, according to the Similar-Web data, Venmo is 2nd ranked most popular finance app in the USA.

App features of Venmo which make it second to none

 
Creators of the Venmo went an extra mile and developed an eWallet app which provides an experience like social media app. This step of the Venmo’s founders can be considered as one of the most tactical steps in the FinTech industry. If you want to be successful with your eWallet app, it should have some rare features like Venmo.

Following are the top features of the Venmo app which you have to ask eWallet app development company to integrate into your eWallet mobile app.

• Users can add money in the eWallet using a debit card, credit card, and bank account.
• A news feed shows the details of all recent transaction of friends.
• Users can comment on their friends’ payments.
• Users can easily split the bill. They can even make groups of friends.
• Users can track all payments in one place.
• Users can request the money from the friend.
• A user profile contains all information of users including their payment history.
• The app encrypts all details before storing it.

Which are the top opportunities and challenges for eWallets?

 
Though, there are a lot of eWallets are available in the market, the probability to be successful with your new eWallet app is still high as a lot of services and markets are still left unexplored. By knowing the opportunities which represent the market scope and by knowing the challenges which you have to overcome, you can uproar the eWallet industry.

► Opportunities

» Increase of smart-phones

It is known to everyone that the number of people who use smart-phones is increasing like never before. It is anticipated that the global smartphone users will reach 2.87 billion in 2020. These many smartphone users are a great sign for you if you want to develop an eWallet app like Venmo. Because now you can acquire more customers while keeping the cost to acquire a customer minimum.

» Rural areas

Almost all entrepreneurs let the market of rural areas fall between cracks. They don’t bring the market of rural areas in the play while filling the business model canvas and so, they end up leaving out a large number of potential users. It seems like they are not still aware of the fact that mobile and internet users in rural areas are also increasing.

Talking about the eWallets, the rural market can be more profitable choice than urban cities as most of the people who are living in remote areas don’t have banks and an eWallet can offer them the efficient and bank-grade payment service.

» Increased public interest

There was a time when people didn’t prefer to pay online. But with the avalanche of online purchase and online activity, eWallet secured its place in people’s smartphones. In 2016, there were 670 million users were using eWallets and by the end of 2022, that number is estimated to reach 1500 million.

However, to derive benefits from all these opportunities, you first need to overcome a few challenges.

 
►Challenges

» Legal Norms

Legality is one of the biggest challenges you need to overcome in order to keep your service running without being clogged. Since, an eWallet deals with money, governments of all countries have imposed different rules. What makes it, even more, worst is that they are constantly changing those rules. So, if your eWallet app is already performing well in the market and all of a sudden, government imposes a new rule, you need to rebuild or upgrade the app according to the new rule.

» Cybercrime

Most banking and financial applications are always on the hackers’ target. By wreaking havoc on IT infrastructure of financial applications, they can satisfy their ‘financial goal’ in the most possible way. In the past, data from popular mobile wallets like Google pay has been stolen. Thus, hire a top eWallet app development company like Coruscate which is able to develop an eWallet app in such a way that it encrypts all data, enables biometric authentication and serves extra security through the firewall.

» App perfection

Currently, all eWallet providing companies are promoting their eWallets on the bases of how fast and feature-packed application they are providing than their competitors. However, developing an error-free eWallet app isn’t as easy as it sounds. Completing API integration with the banks is something which can put you in the financial trouble if it is not well- implemented. Several bugs and performance issues are also riding in most eWallets.
 

How much does it cost to develop an eWallet app like Venmo?

 
Coruscate Solutions is the top FinTech app development company. We are accommodating a highly trained team of designers and developers who can develop any kind of FinTech app, including the eWallet app. We not only develop the next-gen app, but we become the strategic partner of our clients and help them to increase business performance and to solve legal troubles. Additionally, we have completed a successful API integration with Nordic banks which means, we can now afford to develop an eWallet app within 45 to 55 business days and under $10k. To know more about features and to ask for a free demo and consultation, visit our FinTech app development page. We promise you to stay you afloat.