Will the Facebook payment service succeed?

A Facebook payment service has enormous potential for success considering the size and spread of the network: 1.3 billion people are active on Facebook every month, including 945 million via the mobile app*In addition, Facebook’s new ad network ‘Atlas‘ will identify customers across their devices so may help to ensure that the payment service from Facebook will gain a strong awareness, unlike the niche market that Google Wallet accessed across Europe.

Whether Facebook users will put their trust in the network when sending money through, remains to be seen. Considering privacy protection is so important to consumers, they may think twice before giving Facebook access to their credit card details or account data. In addition, the credit card is mainly used as a payment method in the USA and the UK – other countries have their own preferred country-specific payment methods as alternatives to the credit card, so this would need to be addressed.

The subject of regulation also can’t be overlooked. The roll out of an international money transfer is far more complex than just rolling out a global webshop, considering each country has different laws and regulatory rules for their financial market.

The question of whether the Facebook Wallet arrives at the point of sale is an additional point. Apple Pay has a better chance here as its payment service is already organised directly for POS and it has a similarly high market presence as Facebook.