Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#21

Post by spaghetti » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:08 AM UTC

gzp wrote: post #16

spaghetti wrote: post #12

I'm curious about Square's reaction to this. It seems like people could literally start paying with Facebook at restaurants and bars. Now the charges are just part of the monthly phone bill instead of a monthly credit card bill. For that matter I wonder what implications this could have for credit card companies. Anyone know if, say, AT&T pays the same charge for accepting credit cards as small merchants?

What FB is offering here is carrier billing. Short term, paying with FB for physical goods (eg. in restaurants, bars) is an unlikely outcome because carrier billing involves giving up an enormous percentage of the transaction to the carriers. In the U.S., carrier billing typically involves yielding a 40 - 50% margin to the carriers. In Europe, the percentages are lower -- carrier billing is a more mature market there…

Wow those are high! If the whole "paying with your phone" concept catches on perhaps carriers will offer more competitive rates and more than make up the loss on volume of transactions. The current state of retail credit card processing with the signatures and receipts does seem out-dated. Would be so much easier to just wave my phone across some reader. Or just leave the phone in my pocket and use NFC somehow.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#22

Post by spaghetti » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:10 AM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #20

spaghetti wrote: post #12

I'm curious about Square's reaction to this. It seems like people could literally start paying with Facebook at restaurants and bars. Now the charges are just part of the monthly phone bill instead of a monthly credit card bill. For that matter I wonder what implications this could have for credit card companies. Anyone know if, say, AT&T pays the same charge for accepting credit cards as small merchants?

This is so far from Square's current offering that I doubt it raised a single eye-brow.

Paying with Facebook could cut-out the credit card part of paying for things. Square is probably interested in that at least long-term.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#23

Post by jonknee » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:20 AM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #19

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally it's to avoid credit card charges that cuts into the margins of micro-transactions.

Whether the stored value is called "dollars" or "credits" would have no bearing on credit card charges.

It does when there are per transaction fees. 1x $10 has a lot less fees than 10x $1.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#24

Post by HorizonXP » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:20 AM UTC

qwar wrote: post #3

It will be really interesting if this gets approved for the iOS app store, as it's in flagrant violation of the "must use iTunes payments for in-app purchases" rule. But what's Apple to do — no Facebook on iPhone? That would be insane.

And RIM is going down the same path with BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Payment Services. :-/

Not a fan of the trend, but I suppose it does unify the user experience.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#25

Post by jonknee » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:22 AM UTC

> The goal is to make it much easier to pay for in-app purchases. It is well known that the more steps users have to go through to verify payment information on a mobile device, the more likely they are to abandon that purchase halfway through the process.

I wonder how Apple will react to that. They're pretty keen on banning apps that don't give them 30% of in app purchases. If Apple doesn't reject this they will have some explaining to do.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#26

Post by ajross » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:33 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #25

> The goal is to make it much easier to pay for in-app purchases. It is well known that the more steps users have to go through to verify payment information on a mobile device, the more likely they are to abandon that purchase halfway through the process. I wonder how Apple will react to that. They're pretty keen on banning apps that don't give them 30% of in app purchases. If Apple doesn't reject this they will hav…

Policies like that dissolve on this scale. It's not like some random auditor in a cubicle in the app store division pulls up the next app to review in their queue (hm... next is "Facebook"...) and rejects it because it has a payment option that doesn't go through Apple's process.

What happens is that Mark calls Tim, their people meet, and a bunch of lawyers write up a contract that the rest of us will never see.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#27

Post by abraham » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:34 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #23

pbreit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether the stored value is called "dollars" or "credits" would have no bearing on credit card charges.

It does when there are per transaction fees. 1x $10 has a lot less fees than 10x $1.

I believe they are saying keep the transactions the same (so 1x $10) but label the stored value as dollars instead of credits.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#28

Post by hboon » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:38 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #25

> The goal is to make it much easier to pay for in-app purchases. It is well known that the more steps users have to go through to verify payment information on a mobile device, the more likely they are to abandon that purchase halfway through the process. I wonder how Apple will react to that. They're pretty keen on banning apps that don't give them 30% of in app purchases. If Apple doesn't reject this they will hav…

Square doesn't give Apple 30% too. It wouldn't be the first.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#29

Post by pyre » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 3:52 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #23

pbreit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether the stored value is called "dollars" or "credits" would have no bearing on credit card charges.

It does when there are per transaction fees. 1x $10 has a lot less fees than 10x $1.

IIRC, most credit card fees are percentages, so the number of transactions wouldn't matter. I've never dealt directly with it, so I'm not 100% certain though.

Re: Facebook Launches Simple Mobile Payments

#30

Post by bitcrusher » Thu, Jun 07, 2012, 4:01 AM UTC

spaghetti wrote: post #22

pbreit wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is so far from Square's current offering that I doubt it raised a single eye-brow.

Paying with Facebook could cut-out the credit card part of paying for things. Square is probably interested in that at least long-term.

No more than paying with Paypal is... Meaning, they're not too worried about it, is my guess.