Idea: PayPal + Facebook mashup

PayPal is great - it’s the easiest way I know of to send money to someone. It could be a lot better though. Presently I have to:

  1. Ask the recipient if they have a PayPal account, and if so what email address to use
  2. Go to the site
  3. Go through the artificially prolonged login sequence (do people really believe it’s more secure or something??)
  4. Click through their advertisement
  5. Select ‘Send Money’
  6. Type in the recipient’s email address
  7. Select the right type of payment to avoid charges

This is silly. The mobile app isn’t much better either. 

Since pretty much everyone has a Facebook account, and pretty much everyone I want to send money to is my Facebook friend - someone should make this super easy. Something like:

  1. Unlock the app (4 digit pin? swipe a pattern?)
  2. Type the first three letters of someone’s name
  3. Type an amount
  4. Press send