New Mobile Payment Feature to be tested by Facebook

Paying via your Smartphone is becoming increasingly more popular as research shows that M-Commerce is expected to see a much stronger growth than E-Commerce more generally. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is already ahead of the games wishing to test a new mobile payment feature in order to provide ‘a simpler online shopping experience.’

Facebook plan to achieve this by allowing users to add their payment details to their Facebook account which will automatically fill out the forms when making purchases online via mobile applications. According to Facebook ‘the product is simply to test how we can help our app partners provide a simpler commerce experience.’ Undeniably, this mobile payment feature would be advantageous to both the user because of its ease of use, as well as businesses if more sales are completed. Unlike similar payment providers the service that Facebook is testing will not involve moving payment processing ‘away from an app’s current service provider.’

According to Manoj Menon, Managing Director of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, ‘this feature will help them (Facebook) demonstrate to the advertisers the effectiveness of its platform in driving revenue.’ Undoubtedly, however, some users may be less than enthusiastic about uploading their financial details to a social networking site, especially when other mobile payment competitors exist that consumers trust more, such as Paypal.