How successful do you think this will be?
From fast company:
This Is Why Facebook Was So Aggressive About Migrating Users Over To MessengerStill the question remained: Why was Facebook aggressively herding users over to Messenger? Especially since Facebook had just acquired WhatsApp--which basically does the same thing--for $16 billion?
Now, we have clear hints of one possible answer: User-to-user mobile payments. According to leaked screenshots obtained by security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski (and posted to Twitter by developer Andrew Aude), it looks like Facebook is experimenting with a way to send money to other users using Messenger, a la Venmo, PayPal, and Square Cash.
TechCrunch reports that it appears Messenger payments are only compatible with debit cards (like Square Cash), and Facebook declined to comment about any of its payment plans when contacted. (Zdziarski, however, posits the feature could come out in a few months.)Right now at least, the user-to-user mobile payments space is up for grabs. Whereas Venmo and Square Cash are easy to use, Facebook could have a leg up on the competition thanks to its sheer size. In fact, last June, Facebook hired PayPal president David Marcus. His new area of oversight under Zuckerberg--of course--was messaging.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3036695/fast-feed/this-is-why-facebook-was-s…
Very interesting.... could be beneficial because # of fb users but why would some prefer this method of payment over others like Chase Quickpay or the before mentioned Paypal or Square Cash.
Also would be interesting to see if Apple Pay will eventually let you make payments between Apple devices and not just retailers.
Brand recognition. Most people don't know what the fuck Chase Quickpay or Square Cash are
Plus, if they just roll this out with an update, the argument for millions of users turns to: why would I use Chase/paypal/square if I already have this payment method on my phone?
Still think apple is positioned best to take advantage of this, though
I agree that FB has an advantage simply because of the sheer number of users but I feel like on a qualitative basis no one really likes FB even though everyone uses it, everyone's always complaining about its invasiveness (I do enjoy the argument that they're invading our privacy but FB is completely voluntary) and I'd be surprised if they could convert their users into a relatively unrelated business because of those general feelings. FB already has the big brother aura over it and I don't know how many people will voluntarily make it a bank or payment processor in addition to a depository of random thoughts, relationship updates and pictures of cats and dogs. I've been wrong before though. Ten years I thought the whole social media thing wasn't going to be a big deal and that two years ago Zuckerberg would never get a $100B valuation...
this is more on mobile payments in general, but does anyone know what the implications are if one of these companies gets hacked and your account gets compromised? I know that if your credit card gets stolen/hacked, the issuing bank is on the hook for the money but I guess I could see these services as a service where you're willingly turning over your information to them and thus if they lose your info, the banks could theoretically say "not my problem." I don't have time to research but that's always been curious to me.
oh, and I hate messenger, if my relatives used email better I would never use facebook.
Apple solved this with the rollout of apple pay. The new iphone 6 has hardware on the phone called a "secure element" where payment credentials are stored in the physical phone and not in the cloud. Apple pay will also require fingerprint (touch id) and a pin. Much higher security standards which is why they got a sweet heart deal on interchange from the issuers and receive card present vs card not present interchange rates for these transactions.
I don't want to sound like a zealot because there are real adoption barriers, but this technological space is what Bitcoin was designed to fill. In conjunction with mobile technology like NFC, a future state should exist whereby you put cryptocurrency into your digital device (watch, phone) and then simply walk into proximity of the cash register to engage in a point-of-sale transaction.
Obviously transfer of cryptocurrency between digital wallets via Bluetooth and NFC is done today -- all without transaction fees by any third party, and the amount of currency exposed for theft is limited to whatever the user chooses to put in his wallet.
People use FB because it's simple and easy. I don't know too people who like FB or want it to be anymore intrusive.
one thing nobody has failed to mention is that the current payments functionality is only P2P (think venmo, square cash etc) and the economics on those transactions for Facebook are next to nothing. Not 100% sure here but the my guess is that the transactions ride ACH payment rails (only costs several bps), so this first payment feature is purely to attract user engagement and if payment credentials are required (bank accout, card info) collect that payment info and store it for later use with a new payment feature a la a mobile wallet.
The end game no doubt is to develop and launch a "Pay With Facebook" button for ecommerce and mobile similar to Paypal and what Apple Pay is set to roll out next/this month. Better economics, more volume in C2B world and much more powerful way to leverage MAU base.
Interesting move, but necessary. I almost only use Venmo now when going out with friends, paying utilities, splitting a bill, etc... It makes everything so much simpler, and it is instant.
What I would really like to see is my entire banking system becoming as simple as Venmo. I don't understand why it still takes three business days for funds to transfer between my bank account and someone else's... I think Bitcoin could have an application there.
The reason it takes 3 days is because Venmo rides the ACH rails which are separate from the traditional 4 party payment schemes (issuer + network + merchant acquirer + merchant). ACH costs Venmo fractions of a penny for each transaction VS a traditional card swipe costing merchants between 260-280 bps a swipe. The downside is the clearing and settle is not instant (like in a credit/debit transaction) taking 3-4 days, hence merchants don't use ACH rails, however in the P2P world where working capital management is of less importance, it makes a lot of sense.
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