Snapchat launches new payment feature

SNAPCHAT now offers you the chance to send money to your friends through the app. But will it create a new arena for cyber stripping?

Snapchat creator Even Spiegel hopes the new service will be a hit.

SOCIAL app Snapchat has announced a partnership with online payment-processing company Square that allows users of the app to send money to one another via a new feature called snapcash.

In an ostentatious video ad where dancers sing and twostep on piles of cash the company sells the new service as a “wise investment at any age.”

All you need to do is enter the details of your debit card. According to Snapchat, your details are safely secured by Square for all future payments.

Once you’ve done that it’s as simple as typing the dollar sign, the figure amount and pressing the green button to send money to your friends.

However for an app that suffered a recent security breach it remains to be seen if users will embrace this new payment method.

Judging by initial reactions from the public it seems people are more bemused than anything…

who really thought #snapcash was a good idea?

— Tim Hatten (@timhatten) November 18, 2014

There's no way I'm loading my debit card onto an app that got hacked and then released hundreds of photos. Sorry. #snapcash

— hail (@Haaailey__) November 17, 2014

Despite its sceptics, tech insider and co-creator of popular crypto currency Dogecoin, Jackson Palmer, referred to snapcash as ‘genius.’

The app has been reported to have 100 million monthly active users and has been valued by investors at as much as $10 billion despite having yet to figure out a way to turn a profit.

The demographic of Snapchat users is largely teens and young adults so this new pay system will hope to catch their imagination and possibly provide an avenue towards monetisation for the popular app.

But it is a strange step for the company and definitely signals a new direction for the app.

As innocuous as it may seem, it is unlikely that this new feature will continue to be rolled out without any controversy. When Snapchat first launched, the app was plagued by the perception that it was used disproportionately for sending nude pics and other forms of lewd sharing.

If this is the case, it begs the question; will this just be giving rise to a new form of cyber stripping?

The internet certainly seems to think so.

Snapcash: to turn teenage girls into internet prostitutes by requiring money for their nudes

— Shannon Fuchs (@_shannon_taylor) November 18, 2014

I'm dropping out of school to sell nudes on @Snapchat thanks to their new #snapcash update.

— Kyle Harris (@kylesaidthis) November 17, 2014