Facebook announced Tuesday it was launching a
system to send money to friends for US customers using its Messenger mobile
app.
The free service will be offered "in the
coming months," according to a Facebook statement, and will put the huge
social network in competition with services such as Square Cash and Venmo.
The money transfer will use bank debit cards
of members for a quick cash transfer, which may take up to three days depending
on the banks used, Facebook said.
Facebook already handles a considerable amount
of payments through its platform for advertisers and for games on its network.
"Facebook processes more than one million
transactions daily on the site and also handles all the payments processed on
Messenger," the statement said.
"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."
It was not immediately clear if Facebook would
be able to generate revenue from peer-to-peer money transfers, but the feature
could be the start of a more extensive payment network which could be
profitable.
The messaging service Snapchat also offers a
similar feature, in partnership with Square Cash.
