Last week, on 20 October 2017, PayPal announced the immediate availability of its peer-to-peer payment service on Facebook Messenger, making it easy to exchange money between friends and family.
PayPal also introduced its first-ever customer service bot, which gives Messenger customers the ability to pay accounts straight through the app.
Facebook allowed 2.5 million PayPal customers in the U.S. to connect their accounts with Messenger and use PayPal to shop on Messenger as well as communicate with other PayPal users, noted COO Bill Ready.
PayPal is the leader in P2P payment, with $24 billion (US) in volume during the third-quarter of 2017, up with 47% year-over-year.
"We've seen interest from the 2.5 million people who have connected their PayPal accounts to Facebook Messenger that they would like to use this as a way to communicate with us," said PayPal spokesperson Juliet Niczewicz.
"The new PayPal bot for Messenger will enable people to have meaningful customer service interactions," she told the E-Commerce Times, "such as resetting passwords, handling account inquiries, and helping with refunds or payment issues so they can handle their business in the context they are in."
Payments can be made by pressing the blue plus icon when composing a message and then tap the green payment button."Making Messenger more of a platform for commerce and transactions also serves Facebook's wider ambitions to drive platform monetization," said Jack Kent, director for operators and mobile media at IHS Markit. "Bringing payments and advertising closer together can help drive up the value of ads and promotions inside the app," he told the E-Commerce Times.
