Screenshots and video has been leaked on the new service available on Facebook Messenger only iOS for now to send money to friends just like sending pics. It comes to compete against the present services like Paypal and Venmo.
The report notes that the service is still in its early phase (or at least the leak is), and hence several more features and changes should be expected in the final build. And it is almost certain that Facebook will charge you a fee for the service.
While this is the first time we have seen such feature on the service, speculations of such possibility began when the company hired PayPal ex-president David Marcusearlier this year to work on company’s Messenger app. Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s earnings call, did mention that the company will be introducing some sort of e-commerce on the Messenger app.
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. 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
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. 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
Source: Techcrunch
