Facebook is likely to offer mobile payment services for its messenger users, according to tech media outlet Business Insider.
According to the news report, Facebook appears to add several features in its app including payment function on smartphones.
Citing tech media outlet The Information, Business Insider reported that the current Facebook messenger app on iPhone includes messages such as "payment in person" and "pay directly in messenger when you pick up the item," which implies that the company is gearing up for the payment business.
The Information extracted and viewed the software files of the latest version of Facebook messenger.
Although smartphone users are already able to send their cash through messenger, the news reported that Facebook has a bigger plan to expand the payment tool via messenger. The peer-to-peer payment tool was already predicted several months before the release of the code.
According to The Information, another future hidden on the app's code is "secret conversation tool." Although there is no detailed explanations of the tool, industry insiders said that implies encrypted chatting rooms which WhatsApp and Telegram provide.
Also, this code implies that the messenger may add "plan of a day."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, however, noted the company would not launch payment-related products during the earnings call for the fourth quarter in January. He even shunned mentioning Apple Pay as its potential partner.
He said in the conference call, "We don’t view ourselves as a payments business, that’s not the type of company that we are."
Facebook did not make any official comment on the issue.
