Moneybookers launches online payment on Facebook

Mon May 19 2008, 15:34 PM

Facebook users will be able to transfer money to each other and to charities for the first time using an on-site application. The money transfer application is launched by European online payments firm Moneybookers, which already offers its services on Skype and Wikipedia. It will let any Facebook member who has registered bank details make payments to friends, pay for services or make donations to charity. London-based Moneybookers, which claims to have around 5m users, will charge 1% of the transaction's value, up to a maximum of USD0.80 per payment.

Facebook said in the past that it is developing its own payment transfer service, but has not given any launch date. Moneybookers' low fees are expected to make it popular for micro transactions across the social network. The company makes the bulk of its profits by taking a larger share of the transactions involving online merchants.