Exactly a year ago, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and PayPal (NASDAQ:$PYPL) announced its powerhouse partnership where users could pay for purchases on Facebook’s e-commerce offerings, including Messenger, with their PayPal account. As a result, merchants could then utilize Facebook chat bots to accept payments, among other features. Now, Facebook and PayPal plan to rejuvenate their partnership.
Just today, the two companies announced that they are rejuvenating this partnership, and incorporating PayPal into peer-to-peer (P2P) payments on messenger. This new feature will be enacted within the U.S. immediately. Further, PayPal is also launching a customer service bot for Messenger, which can handle basic tasks like password resets, account inquiries, and processing refunds.
Perhaps this sudden collaboration is no coincidence as Apple (NASDAQ:$AAPL) is preparing its own launch of a P2P payment service, Apple Pay Cash. Apple Pay Cash is a headline feature of iOS 11, and is expected to launch sometime this fall.
According to PayPal, around 2.5 million U.S. users will be able to use the new integration with Messenger- a fraction of Apple’s estimated U.S. user base of around 70 million for Apple Pay Cash.
Featured Image: twitter
