American social media giant Facebook has introduced a new payment service to enable remittances across its family of apps.
The new Facebook Pay will allow users to send and receive money across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
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Facebook already had a payments service with Messenger, its instant-chat service.
However, the new tool comes with several new features to streamline payments across platforms and step up transaction security.
It is developed on existing financial infrastructure, but, is separate from the Calibra wallet and the Libra cryptocurrency.
Facebook Pay will work with the majority of credit and debit cards, and the global payments system PayPal. It will also maintain a payment history, and store encrypted card and bank details of users.
Users are required to set up Facebook Pay individually on every app. Once complete, the service can be used to make payments and for in-app purchases.
Initially, the tool will be rolled out on Facebook and Messenger this week in the US. It will support in-game purchases, purchase of event tickets, person-to-person payments as well as purchases from select businesses on Facebook Marketplace.
Gradually, the service will expand to include Instagram and WhatsApp.
“Facebook Pay is part of our ongoing work to make commerce more convenient, accessible and secure for people on our apps,” the company said on the launch.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s Libra project ran into controversies on security concerns.
Recently, Visa and Mastercard withdrew from the initiative and so did other big names including PayPal, Stripe and eBay.
