If you\u2019ve fully adjusted to the app-centric, mobile-obsessed 21st century, then you\u2019ve likely used the mobile payment app Venmo at one point or another. For many, it\u2019s an indispensable debt-settling tool among friends and a godsend for divvying up the check at large birthday dinners. \u201cI\u2019ll just Venmo you\u201d has become the new \u201cDo you think they\u2019ll accept six debit cards?\u201d That\u2019s something servers and customers alike should be celebrating.<\/p>\n
According to LendEDU, the app has processed $4 billion worth of transactions\u2014and that was just in the second quarter of 2016. With Venmo growing at a breakneck speed, LendEDU Chief Technology Officer\u00a0Matt Lenhard was curious to know what people are using Venmo for most. After analyzing more than 500,000 public Venmo transactions, Lenhard and his team discovered a few interesting things.<\/p>\n
For one, to decode Venmo transactions, you need to be fluent in emoji. From cryptic, funny strings of emoji to simple hearts and smiling faces, the message behind the emoji isn\u2019t always straightforward. Quartz reported last year that police arrested a Columbia University undergraduate for dealing drugs and used the student\u2019s euphemistic Venmo transactions as evidence. That being said, LendEDU found that the most commonly used emoji for Venmo transactions was a slice of pizza\u2014and given how much Americans love a good slice, you can probably assume most of these people were paying each other back for food and not methamphetamines.<\/p>\n
In second place was the flying stack of bills, otherwise known as the universal sign for overpriced utility payments. Clinking mugs of beer took third place, while the quintessential house emoji came in fourth place because we all have to pay rent. While it\u2019s not all that surprising that Venmo users (aka millennials) use Venmo mainly for food, rent, and utilities, it is somewhat striking that they feel comfortable paying for more illicit purpose,\u00a0like drugs and gambling, in a public space. For instance, \u201ckale\u201d ranked 21st in the top hundred most popular terms used on Venmo. Based on that information, you can rest assured that a lot more people are reimbursing each other for weed than for a flavorless superfood.<\/p>\n
And as for the 23rd most used emoji\u2014the eggplant\u2014we can only guess what that might mean.<\/p>\n
To find the full results from LendEDU\u2019s analysis, head over to its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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