Facebook want you to entrust them with your money with their new Facebook Pay service which launched in the US today. Facebook Pay aims to provide you with a convenient, secure and consistent payment experience across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. More details available at pay.facebook.com/
Facebook point out that people already use payments across their apps to shop, donate to causes and send money to each other. Facebook Pay want to make these transactions easier whilst ensuring your payment information is secure and protected.
Facebook Pay will begin rolling out on Facebook and Messenger this week in the US for fundraisers, in-game purchases, event tickets, person-to-person payments on Messenger and purchases from select Pages and businesses on Facebook Marketplace. And over time, Facebook plan to bring Facebook Pay to more people and places, including for use across Instagram and WhatsApp.
Whilst sending money to friends through Facebook apps is the obvious use, Facebook Pay will add the potential change their marketplace from what today are effectively nothing more than local classified ads to a full blown marketplace for distance selling. However, due to the lack of ability to search and Facebook Marketplace very much being a buy what you see if you like it, there is still a long way to go before it becomes a serious competitor to eBay or Amazon.
Facebook Pay supports most major credit and debit cards as well as PayPal. Payments are processed in partnership with companies like PayPal, Stripe and others around the world. Facebook Pay is built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships, and is separate from the Calibra wallet which will run on the Libra network.
The real question is, with all the payment options already available to you, do you really need Facebook Pay? Yes, it might be convenient to pay within Whatsapp occasionally and in the future being able to buy and pay from Pages and businesses on Facebook Marketplace might be convenient, but if you’re buying from an unsupported page or a consumer on Facebook Marketplace you’ll still have to resort to an alternative anyway.
Facebook Pay features
- Add your preferred payment method once then use Facebook Pay where available to make payments and purchases on our apps, instead of having to re-enter your payment information each time
- Set up Facebook Pay app-by-app, or choose to set it up for use across apps (where available) — that means we won’t automatically set up Facebook Pay across the apps you are active on, unless you choose to do so
- View payment history, manage payment methods and update your settings in one place
- Get real-time customer support via live chat in the US (and in more places around the world in the future)
- Clearly understand which payment services are part of Facebook
3 Responses
It will be a serious competitor soon however. It is to gumtree right now, but we do add things to their marketplace and you do get a lot of enquiries and compared to eBay a lot more views, we just send checkout links and you get bits and Bob’s but it is all a bit of a faff.
What it is lacking is that search and direct checkout. It is great for driving traffic (instagram tbh) however.
Amazon would be a tough nut to crack and I doubt they will as the big tax dodgers are too big now, but eBay is on a downward spiral hardly anyone I know uses it anymore, and FB is in the perfect position to take eBay out (or just buy them) .
Stay far from this. It’s just another data miner from the most aggressive privacy violator in the world.
Stay far from this. It’s just another data miner from the most aggressive privacy violator in the world.