A new payment system was launched by Facebook yesterday: Facebook Pay. Available across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, it is designed to carry out payments across Facebook’s social media networks. You will be able to send money to friends, buy things online and donate to fundraisers. It is not connected to Calibra wallet and the Libra network itself. According to the company “built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships.”
Its going to be available in the US this week, initially available for fundraisers, P2P payments, event tickets, in-game purchases and some others. Deborah Liu, Facebooks vice president of marketplace and commerce states: “Over time, we plan to bring Facebook Pay to more people and places, including for use across Instagram and WhatsApp.”
To access Facebook Pay you will have to go in the settings section of the messenger or Facebook app. It will support most debit and credit cards along with PayPal.
It is unknown when this system will be available across all its apps, nor the international launch date. Its interesting that Facebook pay comes weeks after many companies dropped out of Facebook’s Libra project. In fact, PayPal was one of the first companies to bow out from the Libra Association. It still doesn’t stop Facebook from launching a traditional payment system.
“Facebook Pay is part of our ongoing work to make commerce more convenient, accessible and secure for people on our apps,” says Liu. “We’ll continue to develop Facebook Pay and look for ways to make it even more valuable for people on our apps.”