Facebook recently announced the launching of a new payments system which will allow users to send money to businesses and their friends through WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook itself.
The feature, called Facebook Pay, will establish one single payment method designed to provide “a convenient, secure and consistent payment experience across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp” which will allow customers to buy event tickets, split bills, pay for products that they see in their feeds and donate to charity drives.
“People already use payments across our apps to shop, donate to causes and send money to each other,” the company says. Facebook Pay will make these transactions easier while continuing to ensure your payment information is secure and protected.”
Facebook Pay will have the following main features:
» Add their preferred payment method once and then use Facebook Pay “where available” to make payments and purchases without having to re-enter their payment information each time
» Configure Facebook Pay on an app-by-app basis or set it up so it can be used across all four services
» View their payment history, manage payment methods and update their settings in one place
» Facebook Pay supports most major credit and debit cards as well as PayPal, Stripe and others
» Facebook Pay is built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships, and is separate from the Calibra wallet which will run on the Libra network.
» Facebook Pay can securely store and encrypt your card and bank account numbers, perform anti-fraud monitoring on our systems to detect unauthorised activity and provide notifications for account activity.
» You can also add a PIN or use your device biometrics, such as touch or face ID recognition, for an extra layer of security when sending money or making a payment. Nevertheless, Facebook does not receive or store your device’s biometric information.
The service is rolling out on Facebook and Messenger from 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, we plan to bring Facebook Pay to more people and places, including for use across Instagram and WhatsApp.” Facebook mentioned.
That could open the door to future monetisation of WhatsApp, which has been notoriously difficult to make money from due to its lack of advertising and its high-privacy design.
It also marks a new stage in Facebook’s evolution towards one all-embracing „super-app”, similar to China’s WeChat, which allows users to perform many different everyday tasks within the same system.
However, the company also confirmed that it would use people’s purchase history to target them with adverts, potentially creating a new privacy loophole in WhatsApp, which has previously shared only limited data with its parent company.
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