A few hours ago (Nov 17th 2014), Snapchat released something called Snapcash. A mobile wallet, that allows you to send money to fellow Snapchatters by simply typing a number, with a dollar sign in front of it. Here's the official message from the Snapchat blog:

Today is a big day for us - we are launching our first product created in partnership with another company. We’re huge fans of the folks at Square and have been big admirers of Square Cash since it launched – just type a dollar amount into the subject line of an email and send cash to friends. Genius!

We loved it so much that we wanted to create something with them that felt Snapchat-y. So we built a Snapcash prototype and shared it with the team at Square. Luckily for us, they were just as excited as we were and wanted to build it together.

The product you’re seeing today is fast, fun, and incredibly simple. After you enter your debit card, it’s securely stored by Square, who will swiftly process your payment and send cash directly to your friend’s bank account. Just swipe into chat, type the dollar sign, an amount (e.g. $11.25), and hit the green button.

We set out to make payments faster and more fun, but we also know that security is essential when you’re dealing with money. Square has a ton of experience in this area and our teams have been hard at work to make Snapcash a great experience for everyone. For now, Snapcash is available to Snapchatters in the United States who have a debit card and are 18 or older.

We hope you enjoy Snapcash as much as we do.

Happy Snapcash-ing!

So what does this mean? Well, it's a huge step in changing the way we exchange money, and it has been targeted to the demographic who can, and likely will, set the standard for how we choose to do so.

If you're familiar with other mobile wallets, like Venmo, then you know how nice it is to transfer money from one bank account to another without being charged a fee. Snapchat is different in that it is opening this idea up to the next generation of spenders, and Snapchat's user base is already very engaged with the product.

Just a few Snapchat facts:

Most active users 13-25 yrs old
100 million monthly users
400 million Snaps sent daily
1 billion snapchat stories viewed daily
77% of college students us Snapchat
Top Snapchatters earn $100,000 per week (PER WEEEEEK!!)

Sure, that's all trivial considering the app currently doesn't make any money, and only one percent of marketers use Snapchat? But, consider this: Facebook purchased Instagram for one billion dollars. Earlier this year, Facebook reportedly offered to purchase Snapchat for three billion dollars, which Snapchat declined.

Crazy, right? Not as crazy as this: