Facebook Hopes to Implement E-Money Service

Facebook Makes Mobile Announcement At Its Headquarters

While most of us know that all the rage these days is some sort of electronic money being available to use, Facebook has jumped to the forefront in starting multibillion dollar brands using it—first testing it in the European market and giving users the option of storing money with the social network or buying items online. Looking for approval to allow the company to do such, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Facebook will issue digital credits to users which can be converted into cash by recipients.

With the company’s focus on their mobile platform, this recent expansion strategy will give Facebook an even larger presence in developing markets such as India, which shows to have 100 million of the 1.2 billion worldwide users of the site, which will only enhance the globalization and use of such a e-money service. In more developed nations around the world, Facebook is in a constant struggle to overtake tech competitors like Apple iTunes and the online marketplaces that Amazon offers, so adopting an e-money service may help users easily transfer funds without using credit cards.

Services like Pay Pal and Google Wallet are just a few of those available for users currently, but Facebook hopes that creating an infrastructure in the less mature markets will help them gain traction in allowing e-money to expand.

With so many question marks surrounding the usage, effectiveness and, most importantly, security with e-money, there are risks involved with Facebook’s announcement, but if the company can follow through on the strategy it has spent the last year or so developing, the reward could be worth billions, proving the site has more value than just keeping up with old friends and sharing content. It may never completely replace the aforementioned competitors like Apple or Amazon, but Facebook can create quite the ripple in helping guide the market passed online checkout services and straight into a more reliable and comfortable e-money transfer for purchases.

Photo by Kim White/Getty Images

Written by Nick Dimengo

Graduate of the University of Kentucky. Cleveland sports fan. Frustrated respecter of LeBron James. Influencer of bad ideas. In addition to Worthly/Housely, I'm a regular contributor to Bleacher Report, Scout, Esquire and Maxim, and run or bike way too much for my own good when not writing. The day a Cleveland sports team wins a title is the day I can officially say my life is complete.