Bird, the scooter company, now wants you to buy stuff with its app
There is Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. And now there is Bird Pay, from the same company that rents people electric scooters.
Bird launched the new payment service Tuesday in Santa Monica (Bird's hometown) and in parts of the greater Los Angeles area. Bird users can now use the app to buy things from participating merchants, which will have a Bird Pay sign with the Bird logo and a QR code.
To pay for things, users just need the Bird app on their phone. They click "ride" and scan the QR code in the business just like they would to rent a scooter. If users have Bird credit, it can deduct from that, or it'll just run the credit or debit card they have set up in the app already.
You May Also Like
Bird didn't share how many businesses are in its initial test, but it said it wants the feature to eventually be available for millions of Bird users.
The company is worth more than $2 billion somehow, despite no clear path to profitability, just like its competitors. Payments could be a way to bring in revenue that doesn't need to go to costly scooter equipment and maintenance.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
