Cash App’s $100K giveaway pushes it to second place in UK App Store

At the beginning of this month, Square’s Cash App finally launched fund transfers between its US and UK user base. As might be expected, adding such fairly basic functionality didn’t really push the envelope for its App Store ranking in the UK, still hovering between 16th and 24th place in the Finance category.

Cash App’s been available for UK users since 2018, but so far both its product and popularity have been limited. First, it didn’t come with a linked debit card, preventing ATM withdrawals. Second, it didn’t allow for transactions to and from the US. Third, some of its main rivals in the UK do offer such features alongside other ones like intelligent budgeting.

Now Cash App does also have some features a competitor like Monzo doesn’t offer yet — investing in fractional stocks, for example — but its main advantage isn’t necessarily a feature; it’s the network effect. The more people are on it, the more people feel like they have to be on it to stay connected with their friends and family. Just as everyone’s using one messaging app the majority of the time.

A few days after launching its international transactions earlier the month, Cash App decided to start including its UK audience in its weekly #CashAppFriday contests, in which the company’s giving away a (weekly increasing) amount of cash to its user base. And boy did its marketing efforts ‘pay out’. Over the course of just two weeks, Cash App managed to climb the Finance app ranking and now resides at number two in the UK, according to SensorTower and AppFollow data.

.@CashApp is storming the UK App Store in the Finance category

Peaked at #2 yday

Was hovering around the top 20 and 30's for months

After launching US-UK transfers and including UK users in #CashAppFridays, downloads are going ↗️

Great find @_SeanDavidhttps://t.co/33lek2t2rN pic.twitter.com/EMBRcHIVsz

— Maximilian Friedrich (@mfriedrichARK) March 23, 2020

With that, Cash App is now at least temporarily trailing every finance app in the UK — from ‘new banks’ like Monzo to established banks’ apps — except for PayPal.