- Key insights: PayPal has expanded its U.S.-focused Venmo P2P app to a global audience.
- What's at stake: The payment company is trying to recover from a growth slump in recent years, which included changing CEOs earlier this year.
- Forward look: PayPal and Venmo face pressure from Western Union, MoneyGram and cross-border payment fintechs such as Wise and Remitly.
PayPal, which is in the midst of a turnaround strategy under
The payment company has made Venmo available in 90 countries, bringing it outside of the U.S. for the first time. By expanding Venmo, PayPal is attempting to dig deeper into a cross-border retail payment market that totaled $40 trillion in 2024, and is on pace to pass $62 trillion by 2032, according to
Making Venmo available to international users would boost the app's addressable market by 200 million users, according to PayPal. While PayPal has owned Venmo since acquiring the P2P app as part of its Braintree deal in 2013, PayPal and Venmo have remained largely distinct, partly due to the technology work involved in making them interoperable.
Despite those technology differences, PayPal has brought Venmo closer to the parent company over the past year. PayPal's core payment app recently became integrated with Venmo through a digital payment product called
"By bringing these two ecosystems together, we're making it seamless for Venmo and PayPal users to pay one another without friction or borders. It's about meeting people where they are and delivering simple, secure ways to move money in the moments that matter most, no matter what your preferred app is," said Diego Scotti, general manager of the consumer group at PayPal, in a release. PayPal did not comment beyond the press release by deadline.
To use Venmo for cross-border payments, users can search by their recipient's full phone number in a search bar. This app will surface the recipient's PayPal account if they have one linked to the number and have enabled the search in their privacy settings. To make an international transfer, the user then enters the amount, and Venmo shows the size of the transaction in the recipient's preferred currency. The user is also shown information on currency conversion rates and applicable fees. PayPal says the transfer fees will be waived until August 24 as a marketing campaign.
Combining PayPal with Venmo is part of a
Displeased with the progress of PayPal's strategy, the company in February
At HP, Lores led the company through a technology transition, including expanding the business beyond its traditional PC and printing roots into services, subscriptions and AI — similar to PayPal's use of new forms of AI to improve shopping, payments and transaction processing.
In arguing for the international Venmo expansion, PayPal cited commissioned research from Talker Research that found 49% of consumers say they have had to download or switch apps to make a P2P transfer, and 30% have forgotten to pay someone because the recipient didn't have the correct app. Additionally, Talker found that 77% of Americans who have lived outside of the U.S. in the past three years say it's important to use the same payment app they rely on at home. PayPal's move also demonstrates Venmo's growing role at the company, according to analysts.
"Venmo is becoming a larger part of the overall business and recent partnerships…should play an important role in growing the Venmo side of the business," Jason Moser, a senior analyst with The Motley Fool, said in a research note.
By using Venmo as a remittance engine, PayPal faces competition from traditional cross-border payments firms Western Union and MoneyGram — and more digitally-focused companies such as Wise and Remitly.
"We think PayPal's 2026 investments focused on agentic commerce, BNPL, and existing product engagement are the right focus areas, but we don't expect to see tangible ROI until FY27 at the earliest," said Andrew Harte, director and fintech analyst at BTIG, in a research note on PayPal.
