The race to converge US messaging apps with payment services has an unlikely contender for champion. Small, California-based encrypted messaging app Signal is testing an anonymous digital payments feature. It encapsulates everything that regulators are afraid of.
Making money from messaging apps remains a work in progress. Facebook (now called Meta) paid $19bn for WhatsApp in 2014 but has yet to extract revenue, though adverts and ecommerce transactions are expected. It has trialled in-app payments but only in Brazil and India.
Signal has vowed to never sell data or show adverts. Instead it relies on user donations. Although the app benefited from WhatsApp’s clumsy attempt to change its data sharing policy last year, it is estimated to have just 2 per cent of WhatsApp’s global user base. The addition of payments might add more.