Facebook introduces the Facebook Card: Yet another way for businesses to rely on the social giant

Following a successful fourth quarter, Facebook has something interesting to share regarding its fledging gifts service — an initiative which received little to no attention during the company’s recent earnings report.

Facebook Gifts hasn’t spent much time in the limelight since its launch, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t investing heavily in its development. To that point, Facebook has just launched physical gift cards, proving how strongly the company believes in the gifts and payments space.

The Facebook Card

Rolling out “gradually” to US users, Facebook claims its “Facebook Card” is “a new type of gift card.” The card, which is built into the Facebook Gifts product, counts Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora and Target as launch partners.

What’s particularly interesting is that this single, reusable card works across different merchants, but holds separate balances for each one. For example, Facebook has shared that on one single card “you might have gift balances of $100 at Sephora, $75 at Target, $50 at Olive Garden, and $8.25 at Jamba Juice.”

In other words, Facebook wants to replace traditional gift cards altogether with its own product (users willing), and if companies as large as Target accept this, the odds are that countless others will as well.

While it may seem trivial at first, the Facebook Card may prove to be a major development. Facebook appears to be inching towards establishing its own currency — it’s not a stretch to suggest that, as users get accustomed to paying with Facebook, a growing number of stores will eventually embrace Facebook’s system.

Facebook has found yet another way for businesses to dependent on it — the sort of relationship Facebook, and its investors, are hoping for.

Image credit: AFP/Getty Images