Facebook announced last week that now we can send money directly to our Friends over Facebook Messenger. The new feature should be easy to use, just click the button, enter an amount and you can add a pin. More about the free service was written about in the recent article on Money.cnn.com.
Inspiration for others
Although this feature cannot presently be used for business, it is the step toward Facebook becoming an e-commerce service. Once Facebook uses the e-payment feature, it will very probably inspire others.
Using new opportunities
The more salespeople remove barriers to shopping, the more customers buy. Thanks to new developments, salespeople are able to easily move large amounts of product to customers.
Facebook´s new offer can be for virtual goods such as movies, music or games as well as selling physical goods. For advertisers it can be an interesting opportunity to sell directly on Facebook.
Simplicity
Paying via Facebook will be very easy for users because they are already connected in the network. If Facebook or any other company uses this way of selling it may burst new sales opportunities.
Facebook Credits, launched in 2009, was a currency which only Facebook users could use to pay for games and other virtual goods. Facebook currency ended in the year 2012, but payments continue in the local currency. According to Facebook there are more than a million transactions a day.
To begin with, the new Messenger feature will be available only in the USA, so we will have to see whether and how quickly it will spread through out the world.
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