Facebook Launching Payment System?
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 1st, 2007 2:14 PMIn the next 6 to 12 months a large portion of social networks are going to open up their platforms to developers. As open platforms become the standard within social networks, what will differentiate Facebook from its competitors? I’m sure a number of things, but the next move? A payment system. I have had a number of people asking me about how to make money on Facebook. I have even spoken with a number of people that are in the process of developing e-commerce applications on Facebook. The only problem with developing an e-commerce system on Facebook currently is that all transactions are going to have to take place outside of the platform if they are guaranteed to be secure. As a result people will desire an internal payment system that they can use within Facebook. This would definitely make sense given that one of Facebook’s primary investors is Peter Thiel, the previous CEO of PayPal. If anybody knows the online payment industry, Peter Thiel definitely does. Facebook may just be working on making shopping a more social activity. Perhaps this will be the catalyst for virtual envy. Or perhaps I’m getting a little too deep! One thing is for sure: Facebook is going to need to announce something big in the next 6 months. I think it’s going to be a payment system. Perhaps just in time for the 4th quarter when online shopping hits a peak.
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3 Responses to “Facebook Launching Payment System?”
They should definitely have their own payment system, where people could make secure payments without even leaving their page. One use I could see becoming popular is to use an Ebay App and bid on items and buy them, without ever having to stop stalking your friends on Facebook.
Facebook has grown over 270% since June 2006, and while MySpace still crushes them in unique monthly visitors, I think MySpace is on the way out, at least for people who actually want to use a social network/utility to connect to friends, save time, and be their main stop on the internet. If Facebook can successfully integrate payments, I don’t see any reason why they can’t take business from PayPal and Google Checkout, among others, for online shopping and payments.
[...] Facebook Launching a Payment System? - Will it be a system where transactions take place outside Facebook, so they are secure, or will they develop some kind of secure internal payment system… [...]
They should definitely have their own payment system, where people could make secure payments without even leaving their page. One use I could see becoming popular is to use an Ebay App and bid on items and buy them, without ever having to stop stalking your friends on Facebook.
Facebook has grown over 270% since June 2006, and while MySpace still crushes them in unique monthly visitors, I think MySpace is on the way out, at least for people who actually want to use a social network/utility to connect to friends, save time, and be their main stop on the internet. If Facebook can successfully integrate payments, I don’t see any reason why they can’t take business from PayPal and Google Checkout, among others, for online shopping and payments.
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