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Facebook/PayPal Partnership Allows Easier Payments for Ads, Credits

by Amar Toor on February 19, 2010 at 01:15 PM

In a bold attempt to broaden its financial reach, Facebook, the world's largest social network, has announced a new "strategic relationship" with PayPal that will allow companies to pay for ad space using the global e-banking service. In a press release issued yesterday, Facebook said that buying ads through PayPal would open the marketplace to more "small international companies," for whom "the payment process can be difficult and expensive." Facebook execs are also hoping that PayPal will provide users, themselves, with an easier way to pay for Facebook Credits, which can be used to buy virtual goods in games and applications, and to purchase items from the Facebook Gift Shop.

It's clear, though, that this move is oriented primarily towards the business ad revenue side of things. As director of payment options Dan Levy says, "Offering local methods of payment has become increasingly important for advertisers who want to buy Facebook Ads." Joining forces with PayPal, he claims, "makes this possible." And, with a full 70-percent of Facebook's 400 million users living outside the U.S., it's logical that the site would do everything possible to open its doors to international business. From PayPal's point of view, the "relationship" simply allows the company to piggyback on one of the fastest growing virtual markets, and ensures that it'll have a finger in the growing pie of ad revenue. Seems like a win-win to us. And if it means exposing smaller businesses to an increasingly global marketplace, all the better. [From: Facebook]

Tags: business, facebook, facebookcredits, money, paypal, socialnetworking, top

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