After months of speculation Facebook has finally announced that you will soon be able to use your Facebook Messenger app to send money to your family and friends.
Last June Facebook recruited PayPal president David Marcus to take over its messaging products division. The move initially seemed puzzling as Marcus possesses a clear background in payments, but with the latest news everything is now beginning to make sense.
When questioned about the hire during an earnings call with analysts, Zuckerberg said "over time there will be some overlap between that and payments ... the payments piece will be a part of what will help drive the overall success and help people share with each other and interact with businesses."
To use the service, Facebook users will first have to link a Visa or MasterCard or debit card to their account and create a PIN. If you are an iOS user and have one of the newer iPhones or iPads that come with a fingerprint reader you can choose to use that instead of the PIN. To send money, users will tap on the "$" icon on the screen and enter the amount they want to send.
In a blog post announcing the new feature of its Messenger app, Facebook stressed the security features of this new feature. "We use secure systems that encrypt the connection between you and Facebook as well as your card information when you ask us to store it for you. We use layers of software and hardware protection that meet the highest industry standards. These payment systems are kept in a secured environment that is separate from other parts of the Facebook network and that receive additional monitoring and control. A team of anti-fraud specialists monitor for suspicious purchase activity to help keep accounts safe."
Facebook Messenger reached 500 million monthly active users in November 2014, with rapid growth due in part to the decision of the Facebook giant to remove the messenger features from its main apps.
Facebook Messenger isn't the only service that allows you to send money, however. In November 2014 Snapchat unveiled a feature known as Snapcash that allows you to send money to your friends using their service. The service is very similar to Facebook's upcoming service requiring you to connect a debit card to your account first. Facebook has emphasized that their new payment features were developed entirely in house.
Currently, Facebook says it processes more than 1 million transactions per day on their site, but while ad revenue has grown, payment revenue has remained flat. The social media giant hopes this will help invigorate the payment market on their service so they can grow transaction volume and payments in the coming months.
