Ever since they’ve gotten flack for their $3 billion valuation from Facebook, Snapchat has been doing everything from spamming ads to branded stickers to prove that they can play in the same sandbox as other web giants. But why sell stickers when you can simply move money around and collect a little transaction fee?
Techcrunch dug up a couple of trademark filings that suggest that Snapchat wants to enter the mobile payment game alongside companies like Paypal and Venmo. The two patents each have a small blurb for the service provided, which are:
- Electronic transfer of money for others; providing electronic processing of electronic funds transfer, ACH, credit card, debit card, electronic check and electronic, mobile and online payments
- Computer application software for processing electronic payments to and from others that may be downloaded from a global computer network
If that seems like a strange move for Snapchat, consider that Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel is a big fanboy of Chinese social titan Tencent, a company well versed in the blend of social, mobile and ecommerce.
No word yet on whether or not Snapchat mobile payments will be powered by bitcoin.
