PayPal's plans to transform itself into a super-app have been approved for launch. Speaking to investors at this week's second-quarter earnings conference, Dan Schulman, PayPal CEO, stated that the initial version for its new digital wallet app for consumers is coded and ready to go. The company plans to gradually ramp up. PayPal will be fully operational in the U.S. within the next few months. New payment services, financial services and shopping tools will be available every quarter.PayPal is a U.S.-based equivalent of Alipay, China's WeChat, or India's Paytm. The company has been talking about this super app vision for some time. PayPal, like these apps, aims to provide a wide range of consumer services, including mobile payments.PayPal previously stated that these new features could include enhanced direct deposit and check cashing, budgeting tools as well as bill pay, crypto support, subscription administration, and buy now/pay it later functionality. PayPal also stated it will integrate commerce thanks to its mobile shopping tools, which were acquired through the $4 billion Honey acquisition in 2019.PayPal has so far continued to operate Honey as a standalone app, website, and browser extension. However, the super app could include more of its deal-finding features, price tracking features and other benefits.Schulman announced that the super app will include other features, such as high-yield savings and early access to direct deposits funds. There will also be messaging functionality beyond peer-to-peer payment, so you can chat directly with your family and friends through the app's user interface.PayPal had not yet announced plans to add a messaging component, but it makes sense considering how people combine chat and peer–to-peer payment today. Someone may prefer to send a request directly for funds, rather than sending it through an app. A user might also want to thank the payment provider or acknowledge their receipt. These conversations are currently not handled by the payment app but can be done on platforms such as iMessage. This could soon change.Schulman said that they believe this will drive engagement on the platform. To send messages back and forth, you don't have to leave the platform.The company anticipates that the increased engagement will result in an increase in the average revenue per account.Schulman also suggested additional crypto capabilities. However, these were not revealed. PayPal raised the limit on crypto purchases from $20,000 to $100,000 earlier this month for US-based customers. There is no annual limit. This year, the company made it possible to visit millions of online businesses with their cryptos by first converting the crypto into cash and then settling with merchants in U.S. Dollars.Although the code for the app is complete, Schulman stated that it is still in the plans to improve the user experience. He also noted that there will be steady updates and new functionality every quarter.He did however mention that the new features would include high-yield savings and improved bill payment with a better user interface and more billers, aggregators and billers, as well early access to direct deposits, budgeting tools and the new two way messaging feature.PayPal's user interface will be overhauled to incorporate all of the new features into its super app.Schulman pointed out that the user experience is currently being redesigned. There are rewards and shopping. There's a whole hub for giving, including crowdsourcing and giving to charities. Then, Buy Now, Pay Later, will be fully integrated into it. He said that there were 25 new capabilities being added to the app last time I checked.Also, the digital wallet app will be customized to each user so that no two apps are identical. This will be achieved using both A.I. Schulman stated that machine learning and A.I. will be used to improve each customer's experience and maximize their opportunities.PayPal beat Wall St.'s expectations in the second quarter, posting $6.24 Billion in revenue and $1.15 per share, respectively. The total payment volume from merchant customers increased by 40% to $311 Billion, while analysts expected $295.2 Billion. The company's stock fell due to a lower outlook for Q3, which was impacted by eBay's transition to its managed payments service.PayPal also gained 11.4 Million net active accounts during the quarter to reach 403,000,000 total active accounts.
