Facebook To Allow Friend-To-Friend Money Transfer Through Its Messenger App?
Facebook Messenger is all set up to allow friends to send each other money. All Facebook has to do is turn on the feature, according to a Techcrunch report.
By Sadho Ram — 06 Oct 2014, 03:26 PM — Updated about 10 years ago
According to a report from Techcrunch, the long arm of Facebook is now reportedly preparing to enter the world of mobile payments
Facebook Messenger is all set up to allow friends to send each other money. All Facebook has to do is turn on the feature, according to screenshots and video taken using iOS app exploration developer tool Cycript by Stanford computer science student Andrew Aude.
techcrunch.com
Messenger’s payment option lets users can send money in a message similar to how they can send a photo. Users can add a debit card in Messenger, or use one they already have on file with Facebook. An in-app pincode also exists for added security around payments.
techcrunch.com
Andrew Aude, the guy who discovered the feature, posted screenshots of it, claiming it would allow Messenger users to pay in the same as users of Square's Cash app allows users to send money with their debit card via their mobile phone
@Facebook Messenger has P2P payments coming. @SquareCash style. pic.twitter.com/3NuXuuaMMC
— Andrew Aude (@andyplace2) October 4, 2014
Mashable reports that the integration of payments into Facebook's messaging app is something that has been widely anticipated following the company's hiring of former PayPal president David Marcus back in June
It’s unclear whether Facebook will monetize Messenger by charging a small fee for money transfers, or offer the functionality for free to drive usage of its standalone chat app. That will be up to David Marcus, the new head of Messenger who was formerly the president of PayPal.
techcrunch.com
Why Facebook chose to poach Marcus is now obvious: Facebook Messenger payments could compete with Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash, and other peer-to-peer money transfer apps.
techcrunch.com
While testing, Aude was reportedly only able to get debit cards to work with the system, banks accounts and credit cards did not work
"Based on my understanding of the debit interchange rates, each transaction will cost Facebook roughly $0.40 to $0.50 (Durbin swipe fee + ACH fee)," Aude told the site. "The app didn’t mention a fee to send, so it’s probably free, at least initially. Over time they might add a $1 fee."
mashable.com
Aude, who says he believes the feature might be rolled out in the next few months, also found another note in the code that indicates the feature will initially only allow one-to-one transactions
"In the short term, we will only support single payment attachment," reads the note in the code discovered by Aude. "Multiple payment attachments will be supported in the future."
techcrunch.com
There's a global battle for messaging going on right now between Facebook/WhatsApp, Apple iMessage, Tencent's WeChat, Line, KakaoTalk, Google Hangouts, Kik, Rakuten's Viber, and others
Each is trying to differentiate itself, sometimes with stickers, games, commerce, or social networking. If Messenger payments is a success, it could create a whole new reason to choose Facebook’s chat app over everyone else’s.
techcrunch.com
Paying friends might be something you only do a few times a month or less, so having a standalone app for it might not make sense. Facebook clearly hopes bundling it into an app people use everyday could help it beat dedicated apps like Venmo.
bgr.in
Plus, beyond peer-to peer-payments, the feature could build Facebook’s collection of debit card numbers and other payment methods. Those could be very useful, as Facebook’s also working on a Buy button for making ecommerce purchases straight from the News Feed.
techcrunch.com