PayPal introduces app for sending money to Facebook friends

While Paypal continues to advance into the retail space through mobile payments, the company is also branching out into the social space with a Facebook application.

Launched earlier today, PayPal has launched a Facebook application that allows Facebook users to send money to other Facebook friends. Aptly called Send Money, users can attach a payment to an e-card along with a message to celebrate an event or simply send the money without a message. PayPal has included 22 different categories of e-card which includes major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, occasions such as anniversaries and weddings in addition to cards for friendship. After giving PayPal authorization to access the friends list, a user can simply type a friend’s name into the form in addition to an email address to send payment. After verifying the payment, it is sent immediately to the Facebook user.

Upon sending the payment, the user also has the option of creating an automatic post on the friend’s wall mentioning the payment. Any message attached to the payment is kept private and likely delivered through email. Although there are currently applications designed for paying with PayPal through Facebook, this is the first peer-to-peer payment application using both Facebook and PayPal. Identical to sending payments between PayPal users, there’s no transaction fee between users when a PayPal account is currently funded or linked to a bank account. However, international fees and fees for credit card payments still apply when sending money through the Facebook application.

PayPal is hoping to take advantage of the 500 million e-cards annually that are sent annually according to the Greeting Card Association. There’s no fee to include one of the e-cards with the monetary gift. The application is also ideal for quickly reimbursing friends for small transactions like lunches in addition to firing off an e-card when Facebook notifies users of an upcoming birthday. According to PayPal, over eighty percent of active PayPal users also have Facebook accounts.