{"id":100687,"date":"2015-03-19T08:08:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T08:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=100687"},"modified":"2015-03-19T08:08:26","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T08:08:26","slug":"you-can-now-pay-your-friends-through-facebook-messenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/you-can-now-pay-your-friends-through-facebook-messenger\/","title":{"rendered":"You can now pay your friends through Facebook Messenger"},"content":{"rendered":"
Facebook’s long-awaited payments feature is finally here.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the social network announced a new feature for Messenger that lets users send and receive money to one another. The feature will roll out to Facebook users in the U.S. across desktop, Android and iOS over the next few months.<\/p>\n
Users who add their debit card information in Messenger’s settings section can send payments by striking up a conversation with a friend, selecting the “$” icon that will appear in the row above the software keyboard, and tapping “Pay.” Users who receive money do so by opening up that friend’s message and accepting the payment when prompted. Like bank deposits, payment may\u00a0take up to three business days to go through.<\/p>\n
Facebook users can only add their debit card information for now, a decision the company said was made to minimize fraud and avoid fees. (Popular peer-to-peer payments app Venmo lets users add credit cards but charges a 3% fee on each transaction.)<\/p>\n
People already pay each other for various things like paying the rent or splitting the dinner bill, “so why don’t we finish those conversations in the same place we started?” Steve Davis, Facebook’s payments program manager, told Mashable<\/em>.<\/p>\n With the new payments feature, Facebook is making a play to get users to stay on the social network for longer time periods, plain and simple. Digital marketing firm eMarketer estimated that adults in the U.S. averaged 21 minutes per day on Facebook in 2014\u00a0\u2014 the equivalent of 6% of their time spent online.\u00a0Those are some solid stats, given Facebook remains the second-most trafficked site domestically and globally (behind Google), but like any Internet company, the longer people spend using their service, the better.<\/p>\n “It’s really about, ‘how do you keep Facebook sticky?’<\/span> How do you get users to play in a different way that\u2019s beyond just<\/em>communications?” explained Forrester Research Vice President Sucharita Mulpuru.<\/p>\n Higher engagement lowers the odds of Facebook users resorting to outside services that may be competition now or in the future.\u00a0Persuading users to share their payment information with the social network also opens the doors for potential revenue-generating opportunities down the road.<\/p>\n “If Facebook gets a ton of credit card and payment details, and if consumers could complete transactions for physical goods on Facebook, and if<\/em>\u00a0Facebook actually chooses to do so in meaningful ways,\u00a0they would be able to better target buyers, which could raise their advertising rates,” said Mulpuru, conceding those are a lot of ifs. It’s also unclear how much Facebook needs payment data to punch up its advertising, given ad revenues are already on a tear. (Its ads raked in $3.59 billion during the fourth quarter of 2014, up\u00a053% year-over-year.)<\/p>\n The move makes more sense given mobile payments’ fast-growing popularity. Forrester Research estimates mobile payments will nearly triple in volume from $52 billion last year to $142 billion come 2019. Entering the space is a no-brainer for a player like Facebook, which sees 745 million of its users \u2014 roughly half its user base \u2014\u00a0sign on via phone or tablet.<\/p>\n