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Facebook Messenger allows for direct merchant sales

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook announced on Monday (Sept 12) a new online payment system that will allow businesses to sell directly to consumers on its Messenger application.

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook announced on Monday (Sept 12) a new online payment system that will allow businesses to sell directly to consumers on its Messenger application.

“We’re kicking off the beginning of messages with payments that will allow businesses to sell products and services directly to customers in Messenger,” the social network said in a statement.

“Customers can check out with a few easy clicks, without ever leaving the Messenger app.”

The announcement suggests Facebook may be able to monetise its free messaging application, which is used by over a billion people, by making it an e-commerce platform.

Mr David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook, said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference that the company was working with a number of payment providers including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Stripe to implement the features.

Facebook earlier this year opened up Messenger to developers to create new applications and “bots” which can interact with users. These bots can provide information but consumers who wanted to make a purchase had to be directed to an external website.

The company said developers have created more than 30,000 bots for Messenger, and many more developers are working on applications. AGENCIES

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