NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Facebook has big plans to turn Messenger into an “Everything App” that will replace many others found on your smartphone, but one of the most important shifts will be turning it into an app that pays for things. Now code found inside Messenger suggests Facebook plans to turn on a feature to make digital transactions or even pay for physical goods in stores, according to a report in The Information.

A forthcoming software release will allow people with a Facebook Messenger account to pay for goods “in person” or “pay directly in Messenger when you pick up the item” without the need for cash, according to commands found in code for the current version of Messenger.

It’s unclear whether this would mean Facebook will go head-to-head with other companies that already have mobile wallet services, such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, or whether it will piggyback on those services instead.

The latter seems more likely. Mark Zuckerberg said in January that Facebook would “partner with everyone who does payments… We look at the stuff that Apple is doing with Apple Pay, for example, as a really neat innovation in the space that takes a lot of friction out of transactions as well,” he said during a conference call with investors.