Following Facebook’s S-1 filing for its upcoming IPO, it soon become clear that whilst the company saw its mobile presence booming, it knew it hadn’t done enough to monetize its offering and had its hand forced by a reliance on the platforms on which it operated.
However, with reports suggesting the company will soon debut advertising on its mobile platforms, the company is moving ahead with monetizing the 425 million monthly active users it sees browse its service on a mobile device.
Today, a small piece of news hit the newswires which suggests the company is looking to introduce mobile payments and operator billing, after Facebook today signed a deal with mobile payment specialists Bango:
Bango has signed an agreement to provide payment services to Facebook.
The terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
Bango’s board believes it is too early in the relationship to accurately forecast the level of business which it may generate.
The deal could be a sure sign that Facebook is looking to help its users purchase apps, credits (which could change payments in Asia ) and other related items on its service and have them charged directly to a user’s mobile phone bill – this could be massive when you consider the service has more than 850 million users.
Bango is a company already well established in the mobile payment space as a result of its partnership with RIM, powering mobile payments on its BlackBerry smartphones. It also supplies its in-app payment technology for Opera Software’s app store – both of which charge purchases to a user’s monthly phone bill.
In December, Amazon appeared to be pushing ahead with plans to incorporate new mobile billing features to its website and products by also partnering with Bango.
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Bango will not discuss the agreement, suggesting it is merely in the early stages. We have asked Facebook for comment on its mobile plans and will update the article when we receive a response.
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