Imagine sending money to a long list of people from a mobile device, one person at a time. It would be a maddening chore. Dwolla is aiming to make that process less onerous, going beyond "person-to-person" payments to "person-to-people" payments.

MassPay, released this week, allows Dwolla users to send payments to up to 2,000 people at once using only the recipients' email addresses, mobile phone numbers or Dwolla account IDs. The process is as simple as uploading a file with two columns — how much to pay and to whom. MassPay handles the rest.

Dwolla users instantly get the funds deposited immediately into their Dwolla accounts. Non-Dwolla users receive a message to their email address or mobile device asking them to register. Once they do in only a few steps, their funds are sent to the newly created account.

The cost for MassPay is the same as other Dwolla payments — all transactions under $10 are free, transactions greater than $10 cost 25 cents. Senders have the option of paying the fee or having it deducted from the funds being sent.

MassPay also keeps a history of each batch sent so users can track their payments.

Dwolla is offering the MassPay service for free for a limited time. During the next 30 days, users can send up to five batches of payments and have the fees refunded.

For more stories like this, visit the mobile banking research center.