Major tech companies are finding new ways to integrate digital money transferring into their services.
Facebook, Snapchat, Gmail and many more have already found ways to allow users to send money from person to person within their already popular services.
This has also seen the rise of apps used solely for this purpose, like Tilt and Venmo, apps which have made their significant impact on the Ole Miss campus.
“Ole Miss students love Tilt for a couple of reasons,” Lee Srebnick, community development director for the money transferring app Tilt, said. “It was just making their lives easier when it came to collecting money, not only for the Grove or greek organizations, but also for the small things like splitting utility bills and chicken-on-a-stick … There’s a lot of competition out there, but for some reason, the brand recognition at Ole Miss is really strong.”
Srebnick is a recent graduate of the university who started as an ambassador for Tilt on campus. He said the use of money sharing apps has exploded on campus, making Ole Miss the No. 1 market for Tilt nationally, a title that is still held.
Spencer Hughes, Ole Miss’ record holder for most money raised via Tilt, said this feature is invaluable when it comes to regular use.
“Whenever I am somewhere I use the send or request money feature,” Hughes said. “If I am at Sonic and I forgot my wallet, my friend can pick up my order for me, and then all I have to do is pull up my phone and click pay, and it’s instant.”
Although recently the focus of use has been on small, day-to-day interactions, Srebnick sees services such as Tilt expanding much farther, something that has already been demonstrated with the Rae Sremmurd concert made possible by Tilt last year.
“The power of Tilt really showed how the Ole Miss community can come together and really make these events happen,” Srebnick said. “There’s definitely going to be some more events on the horizon. I can’t tease yet, I think they are going to be second semester. Spring party season is going to be big. We have a lot of things in the works.”
Besides parties and concerts, Srebnick has also begun to place emphasis on the charitable actions that money sharing apps have the capability of performing. By combining the power of all users across the nation, acts such as building homes and schools in developing countries become highly achievable, something Srebnick said he hopes to see become a reality in the near future.
“It made projects and events possible and achievable,” Tilt ambassador Jack Starr said. “Before, I only used it for tailgating in the Grove, but I realized that there are so many more things you can do with it.”
