Facebook brings in payment system
Facebook has begun tapping a new revenue stream with the introduction of an internal payments system, a move that might help the fast-growing social networking website achieve profitability while being less reliant on advertising.The long-rumoured payments system, which is in its early stages, will allow users to purchase Facebook “credits”, then use those credits to buy virtual goods from the third-party applications that run on the site, or from Facebook itself.Facebook hopes that by offering a site-wide currency it will encourage more commerce on the website. By serving as the payment provider, it will capture a percentage of every transaction.“Over time, this will be very significant,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner Research. “Social networking sites have suffered with monetising [their services], but this leverages [the fact that] users are there on Facebook.”Mr Valdes said revenue from its payments system could soon represent one-third of Facebook’s income.us