Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 1 of 7
`
`Exhibit 6
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 2 of 7
`
`Venmo
`
`Venmo is a mobile payment service owned by PayPal. It allows
`users to transfer money to one another (within the U.S. only) using
`a mobile phone app or web interface. It handled 17.6 billion dollars
`in transactions in 2016.[1] In Q1 of 2017, it handled 6.8 billion
`dollars in transactions, which more than doubled its volume in Q1
`of 2016.[2]
`
`Cash transfers using Venmo are not instantaneous and can be
`canceled after an initial transfer is sent. The transfers can take one
`to three business days to become final. The Better Business Bureau
`has reported that some scammers have been exploiting the
`cancelation feature on Craigslist and in other contexts.[3]
`
`History
`Early years
`2009-2011
`2012-2017
`Service
`Social component
`Questions of security
`See also
`References
`External links
`
`Developer(s)
`
`Initial release
`Platform
`
`Original author(s) Andrew Kortina and
`Iqram Magdon-Ismail
`Venmo, LLC
`(Subsidiary of PayPal)
`2009
`iOS
`Android
`Web
`English
`www.venmo.com
`(https://web.archive.org
`/web/20180329225602
`/http:
`//www.venmo.com/)
`
`Available in
`Website
`
`Early years
`Venmo was founded by Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, who met as freshman roommates at the University
`of Pennsylvania. According to Kortina, the duo were initially inspired to create a transaction solution while, in the
`process of helping start a friend's yogurt shop, they "realized how horrible traditional point of sales software was."
`Then, at a local Jazz show, Kortina and Magdon-Ismail conceived the idea of instantly buying an MP3 of the show via
`
`1 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 3 of 7
`
`text message. Finally, the idea was cemented when Magdon-Ismail forgot his wallet during a trip to visit Kortina. The
`process of settling their debt was a considerable inconvenience, especially compared to the possibility of mobile phone-
`based transactions. Shortly after, they began working on a way to send money through mobile phones.[4] Their original
`prototype sent money through text messages, but they eventually transitioned from text messages to a smartphone
`app.[5]
`
`2009-2011
`Venmo enables anyone with a mobile device to send and receive payments via text message, creating a dialogue
`between buyers and sellers.
`
`The shift to mobile payments requires a service that captures the subtle gestures involved in everyday cash exchanges.
`Venmo transactions are personal, with SMS notes that make payments feel like conversations. Venmo's medium for
`maintaining these social nuances along with the ability to make payments, allows Venmo to take the stress out of
`exchanging money. The ubiquity of cellphones plus Venmo's magic will create an impenetrable network effect, making
`Venmo the preferred way to pay for everything.[4]
`
`Venmo earned some angel rounds of financing in the period.
`
`2012-2017
`There were three original funding rounds for Venmo[6] before it was acquired in 2012 by Braintree for $26.2 million. In
`2013, PayPal acquired Braintree for $800 million.[5] Prior to October 2015, Venmo prohibited merchants from
`accepting Venmo payments. On January 27, 2016, PayPal announced that Venmo was working with select merchants
`who would accept Venmo as payment. Initial launch partners included the meal delivery service Munchery and the
`ticketing app Gametime.[7] Venmo has since begun to roll out the ability for all merchants that accept PayPal to also
`support Venmo as a payment method. This was said to potentially enable the system to reach millions of businesses by
`the end of 2017 and help Venmo generate revenue.[8]
`
`Venmo Quarterly US
`Payment Volume And
`Annual Growth
`
`Venmo is a mobile payment service that lets users transfer money to each other. Venmo describes itself as a "digital
`wallet".[9] Users sign up and create an account by providing basic information and bank account information using
`
`2 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 4 of 7
`
` or on the Venmo website and they can find others who have created an account. Friends and
`bil
`their
`recipients of transactions can be found via phone number, Venmo username, or email.
`
`Users have a Venmo balance that is used for their transactions. They can link their bank accounts, debit cards, or credit
`cards to their Venmo account. Paying with a bank account or debit card is free, but credit cards have a 3% fee for each
`transaction.[10] If a user does not have enough funds on Venmo itself when making a transaction, it will automatically
`withdraw the necessary funds from the registered bank account or card.
`
`When users first create an account, total transactions cannot exceed $299.99 until their identity is verified.[11] After
`their identity has been verified, users can send up to $2,999.99 in each seven day period.[12]
`
`Venmo includes social networking interaction; it was created so friends
`could quickly split bills, whether that is for movies, dinner, rent, tickets, etc.
`When a user makes a transaction, the transaction details (stripped of the
`payment amount) are shared on the user's "news feed" and to the user's
`network of friends.[14] This mimics that of a social media feed. There is a
`"world wide" venmo feed, a "friends only" feed, and then personal feed.
`Venmo encourages social interaction on the application through comments
`using jokes or emojis and/or likes. Early on Venmo required new users to
`sign up through Facebook, which made it easy to find peers they wanted to
`pay and also provided Venmo with free marketing.[15] If you aren't
`Facebook friends with someone who you need to Venmo, the application
`gives you the opportunity to search by username and phone number.
`Profiles are personalized with profile pictures, usernames and Venmo
`transaction history. The transactions can be made private, but most users
`keep the default and do not change the privacy settings.[16] Venmo does not
`have either buyer or seller protection.[17]
`
`Venmo includes three social feeds: a public feed, a friends feed, and a
`private feed. By default, all Venmo transactions are shared publicly. Anyone
`who opens the app to the public feed, including people who do not
`themselves use Venmo, can see these publicly shared posts. The privacy
`settings can be changed so that all posts are either shared only with a user’s
`Venmo contacts, or even kept private. If posts are shared only with
`contacts, they still appear in a friends feed, whereas private transactions are only visible to the two parties involved in
`the transaction. If two users involved in a single transaction have differing privacy settings, Venmo applies the most
`restrictive level. Users can override their overall preference for any individual transaction, including after the
`transaction has been made. [18]
`
`Social feed of transactions on
`Venmo[13]
`
`Each transaction includes a description of what the payment is for in text, emoji, or both. This description is required
`to complete the transaction, but Venmo does not enforce content requirements (e.g., someone could describe the
`transaction as “nothing”). Venmo recommends emoji when a common expense is entered as the description. Overall,
`30% of Venmo transactions include at least one emoji.[18]
`
`Regardless of a transaction’s privacy, only the two people involved in a transaction can see the transaction’s amount.
`
`3 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 5 of 7
`
`Transactions are persistent within the feed and scroll infinitely. A previous transaction may be difficult to revisit if a
`user or their contacts have many transactions.[18]
`
`Venmo's social model has caused researchers' attention. A research group from University of Washington thought the
`social awareness stream(SAS) in Venmo differs from other SASs in that it is driven by the app’s financial functionality.
`Posting is dependent on using the app’s core functionality, financial transactions. A user could make a trivial
`transaction to make a post (e.g., sending someone $0.01, or requesting $0.02), but only one participant in their studies
`reported ever doing this. Further, neither reading the feed nor sharing a transaction memo publicly or with friends is
`necessary to send or receive money.[18]
`
`On Venmo, people transact with both friends and businesses via the app.[19] Analysis of public transactions identifies a
`spectrum of use patterns, from regular users who create transactions for a variety of expenses, to niche users who use
`Venmo with a small cluster of friends to pay for just a few things (e.g., bills among roommates). While this prior
`research describes a range of public uses of Venmo, it cannot describe people’s experiences with the application and its
`SAS or their use of transactions that are private or shared only with friends.
`
`Venmo has claimed that its security is bank-grade, and that personal and financial data are encrypted and protected on
`secure servers to guard against any unauthorized transactions.[20] These security claims have been questioned by
`journalists, security researchers, and the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO).[21][22][23]Venmo, like any
`other network service and application, is not 100% risk-free. Although there was a concern about the possibility of the
`leakage of personal information and security in 2015, Venmo explains that users do not need to worry about losing
`their personal information and security. Even if that personal information along with the specific remittance is
`disclosed, Venmo encourages users to set up a PIN number to increase security.[24]
`
`Mobile payment
`Popmoney
`Square Cash
`Zelle
`
`Intelligence,BI. "Venmo's monetization will be worth watching" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http:
`1.
`//www.businessinsider.com/venmos-monetization-will-be-worth-watching-2017-1). Business Insider. Retrieved
`14 Jun 2017.
`Gagliordi, Natalie. "PayPal delivers solid Q1, payment volume reaches $99 billion" (https://web.archive.org
`2.
`/web/20180329225602/http://www.zdnet.com/article/paypal-delivers-solid-q1-payment-volume-reaches-99-billion/).
`Retrieved 2017-06-14.
`"Scammers Use Venmo to Fool Sellers" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://www.bbb.org/council
`3.
`/news-events/bbb-scam-alerts/2016/scammers-use-venmo-to-fool-sellers/). Retrieved 2016-10-24.
`
`"Origins of Venmo" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://kortina.nyc/essays/origins-of-venmo/).4.
`kortina.nyc. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
`
`4 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 6 of 7
`
`!" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https:
`L
`f
`20 2014) "C h I
`b
`(N
`F li
`Gill
`5.
`//www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-11-20/mobile-payment-startup-venmo-is-killing-cash). Bloomberg.
`Retrieved November 13, 2016.
`"Venmo-Funding Rounds" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://www.crunchbase.com
`6.
`/organization/venmo/funding-rounds). Crunchbase. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
`Rao, Leena (January 27, 2016). "You Can Now Use PayPal's Venmo To Pay Merchants" (https://web.archive.org
`7.
`/web/20180329225602/http://fortune.com/2016/01/27/venmo-business/). Fortune.com. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
`Toplin, Jaime. "Venmo makes moves to monetize" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http:
`8.
`//www.businessinsider.com/venmo-makes-moves-to-monetize-2017-5). Retrieved June 14, 2017.
`
`"Venmo" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://venmo.com/). Venmo.com. Retrieved 2018-02-09.9.
`
`"Pricing" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://venmo.com/about/fees/). Venmo.com.10.
`Allan,Patrick (January 11, 2016). "Money Transfer Showdown: Square Cash vs. Venmo vs. PayPal"
`11.
`(https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://lifehacker.com/money-transfer-showdown-square-cash-vs-
`venmo-vs-payp-1752058723). Retrieved June 23, 2017.
`"Payment Limits" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles
`12.
`/221010968-Payment-Limits). Venmo.com.
`13.
`"Venmo-Braintree" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://www.braintreepayments.com/features
`/venmo). Braintree.
`Moorthy, Neelesh (March 25, 2015). "Cash, credit or mobile app: the rise of Venmo" (https://web.archive.org
`14.
`/web/20180329225602/http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/03/26/cash-credit-or-mobile-app-rise-
`venmo#.VTIK-eGzn6o). The Chronicle. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
`Bird,John (November 4, 2015). "How Venmo Won In One Of The Most Crowded Spaces In Tech"
`15.
`(https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/04/how-venmo-won-in-one-of-the-
`most-crowded-spaces-in-tech/). Retrieved June 23, 2017.
`Wener-Fligner, Zach (March 20, 2015). "The emoji of Venmo: food, booze, partying, and, occasionally, rent"
`16.
`(https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://qz.com/359903/the-emoji-of-venmo/). Quartz. Retrieved
`April 18, 2015.
`
`"Security" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://venmo.com/about/security/). Venmo.com.17.
`"Venmo Unveils Most Emoji-Loving Cities in Honor of #WorldEmojiDay" (https://web.archive.org
`18.
`/web/20180329225602/http://blog.venmo.com/2016/7/14/venmo-unveils-most-emoji-loving-cities-in-celebration-of-
`worldemojiday). The Venmo Blog. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
`Xinyi, Zhang (2017). "Cold Hard E-Cash: Friends and Vendors in the Venmo Digital Payments System"
`19.
`(https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://cs.ucsb.edu/~xyzhang/venmo-icwsm17.pdf) (PDF).
`Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2017).
`20.
`"Venmo: App to make and share payments" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://fiscaltoday.com
`/venmo-app-make-share-payments/). Fiscal Today. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
`"Venmo security: it's not as strong as the company wants you to think" (https://web.archive.org
`21.
`/web/20180329225602/http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/safety_net/2015/02
`/venmo_security_it_s_not_as_strong_as_the_company_wants_you_to_think.html). Slate. 2015-02-01. Retrieved
`2015-10-23.
`22.
`"Security research of a social payment app" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https:
`//courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2014/files/13-benkraft-jmoldow-mannes-venmo.pdf) (PDF). MIT CSAIL. 2014-05-14.
`Retrieved 2015-10-23.
`"Venmo App: Users Raise Questions About the Security of Peer-to-Peer Money Transfer Service"
`23.
`(https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/venmo-app-users-raise-
`questions-security-peer-peer/story?id=29658676). ABC News (USA). 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
`
`5 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`

`

`Venmo - Wikipedia
`
`https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 268-6 Filed 10/25/18 Page 7 of 7
`
`i (2015 03 24) "How Safe is Venmo and Why is it Free?" (https://web.archive.org
`N h T
`24.
`/web/20180329225602/http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032415/how-safe-venmo-and-why-
`it-free.asp). Investopedia. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
`
`Official website (https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225602/http://www.venmo.com/)
`
`Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Venmo&oldid=832841196"
`
`This page was last edited on 28 March 2018, at 08:36.
`
`Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
`this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
`Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
`
`6 of 6
`
`10/19/2018, 7:14 PM
`
`