Facebook has been making news in the financial world for its controversial Libra Project. Central banks around the world are up in arms over the possibility that Facebook could launch its own digital currency and change the global financial landscape.
While the debate over Project Libra continues to rage, Facebook has surprised the financial community once again by launching its own payment service. Dubbed “Facebook Pay”, it will soon be available on Facebook. It will also be accessed via its subsidiary apps which include Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The main feature of the service is that it will allow payments and money transfers to be made using the Facebook platform. All transactions will need confirmation via PIN numbers or biometric identification.
Facebook Payment Service
This move is a bit of a surprise since many thought that Facebook would focus on getting Libra rolled out first. Libra is supposed to be integrated into the Facebook infrastructure in a similar manner as Facebook Pay but it seems it is still in regulatory trouble. Regulators all over the world are bashing Libra over how it fails the various requirements for privacy and crime prevention.
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The Facebook payment service is also a bit worrying in itself. But to head off any troubles with regulators, Facebook clarifies that the payment service is actually more of a rebranding of what is already there. People were already able to pay for stuff and send money via Facebook. This would just consolidate everything under one umbrella and make the entire process much easier.
The service will be available this week in the United States. Facebook users can pay for in-game purchases, event tickets, and more via the FB Messenger and on select pages on the FB Marketplace
Facebook Payment Service Should Help Libra
Though the official launch of the feature was this week, Facebook seems to have started planning for this feature to launch from September. This was when the first hints of a Facebook Pay transaction page were found and shared by well-known app vulnerability discoverer Jane Manchun Wong on her Twitter account.
Facebook is working on "Facebook Pay" transaction page pic.twitter.com/yyOdhHyfUW
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 13, 2019
Facebook has made another smart move by creating its own payment service. This is because several US-based payment processors backed out of the Libra project recently. This was a pretty major blow since every big-name processor seemed to pull out all at once. This included Visa, PayPal, Stripe, and MasterCard. This took out a large branch of support for Libra since these US payment processors would allow it access to the US market. With its own payment service, Libra might have a chance of entering the US market in the near future.
