Ecommerce sales hit $4.9 trillion in 2021 and are expected to exceed $6.1 trillion in 2023, accounting for almost a quarter of retail sales. Around 50 percent of online purchases are made using a digital wallet. Clearly, to say that digital wallets are significant in today’s economy is a huge understatement.
Apps like Apple Pay and Google Pay are exploding in popularity with millennials and Gen-Z. Meanwhile, older demographics tend to remain faithful to the digital wallet that started it all – PayPal might be old, but 429 million registered users say they are doing something right!
However, that is not the end of the story. Cash App has enjoyed a surge in users over the past couple of years after spending so long as an “also ran.” Let’s find out what’s behind its sudden popularity.
Cash App’s reinvention
Cash App has been around longer than most of us realize. It came out in 2014, and enjoyed a spike of early popularity under its original name of Square Cash, as a great tool for peer-to-peer transactions. However, after the hype died down so did the users. In 2018, the app was rebranded as Cash App, but the change was more than skin deep.
As well as rebranding, Square launched Cash App in the UK market and added new functionality for Bitcoin trading. It also invested millions in an advertising campaign with Houston-born rapper Travis Scott at its heart. This combination of factors has helped Cash App to achieve an increase in profits of 212 percent from 2019 to 2020.
The gambler’s choice
The marketing campaign certainly reminded the vitally important Gen-X demographic that there are digital wallet alternatives beyond Apple and Google. However, the new crypto functionality undoubtably contributed to Cash App’s escalating fortunes, too.
Cash app is welcomed in dozens of casinos. Due to the regulatory situation in so many states, using Bitcoin to bankroll casino gaming and then having an online casino cash app payout in the event of a big win makes a lot of sense. Bitcoin gambling is commonplace as a way to enjoy playing a casino game without involving banks that could face problems under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Cash App is a useful app for those who want to use Bitcoin but are not entirely sure how, a description that fits an increasing number of US online casino gamers at present.
The viable alternative to PayPal
The other significant factor in Cash App’s growth is that it is an established name that provides a viable alternative to the world’s most popular digital wallet. PayPal user numbers have dropped slightly in recent months and there has been plenty of murmuring online as to why.
For years, PayPal’s fraud prevention measures have been considered a benchmark. But for some users, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. There are numerous stories of customers being locked out of their own accounts and being forced to wait for days to get back in. Cash App seems to have the same strong record on fraud prevention but without the inconvenience and drama.