Facebook developers, rejoice! Facebook has begun testing a new payment feature for Facebook applications, called Pay With Facebook (creative, I know). Being first implemented on Facebook certified application Groupcard, you now have the option to pay via Pay With Facebook. By pre-purchasing credits, you can automatically have points deducted from your account when purchasing items or features within a Facebook application.
As far as I am aware Pay With Facebook has not yet been integrated with Facebook Connect and is only available to Facebook verified applications. I believe it is safe to assume that a future integration with Facebook Connect will be vital to Facebook’s plan to be an integral (and properiatary) part of the web.
Photo Credit: Techcrunch
This could have a very negative effect on other services that are attempting to monetize the web. Facebook already has significant reach with Facebook Connect and the userbase, 200 million strong and growing, to back up a widespread monetization service for web products. Services like Contenture, who are approaching monetization for content producers in a very innovative way, do not have such benefits. In effect, Facebook has a major leg up on any potential competition.
Still, it is very welcome that Facebook is making it easy for developers and end users to pay for applications. With such a strong and assumingly loyal following Facebook has a lot of people willing to pay for applications, and a blooming market to make a lot of cash off of. Are we finally seeing signs of Facebook taking profit seriously?
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
