Facebook Takes Another Crack at Payments With New Pages Connection

Facebook likely knows that the future in online advertising is a bit shaky at best.

Dependent on big numbers and more engaged users—the former is fairly simple, the latter much, much tougher—it’s been looking to diversify and have separate income streams going that don’t necessarily depend on big numbers.

The newest trial is limited in scope, but potentially impressive in potential effect, as it turns to Facebook Pages in Thailand.

With the new trial, Thai Facebook users will be able to use the Qwik payment service, along with a credit or debit card or an online bank transfer, to pay for products found on Pages.

The service is currently being tested on some of Thailand’s leading Facebook Pages, accounting for millions of fans each.

Reports suggest that, following successful trials in Thailand, the service will likely expand outward to other countries in Southeast Asia, before potentially moving on from there.

With Pages payments a possibility, Facebook can take on Line and WeChat in the region, who offer similar options and are already popular with users for things like taxis and movie tickets.

Facebook, however, has already done well as a promotional product, so businesses might well think that they’re already doing well promoting on Facebook, so why not kill two birds with one stone and take payments in the same place promotion’s happening?

It’s odd to see Facebook trying this particular move in Southeast Asia; it’s not exactly a massive market down there, so as a trial-by-fire scenario goes, there likely won’t be a lot of heat involved.

However, with millions of users afoot, it may well be enough to at least tell Facebook something about how the Pages are used and the like.

This could just be a limited-scale test balloon, and going for a smaller market isn’t exactly a bad idea. It can always be scaled upward if need be, and that would be better than Facebook taking a sock in the reputation for not having a sufficiently powerful experience.

As a trial, Facebook may have just the right place here, and it will be interesting to see what comes of it after a few months have passed.