[caption id="attachment_168320" align="aligncenter" width="171"] via Facebook[/caption] Facebook has enabled group payments on its Messenger platform, the social network said in a blog post Tuesday. Users can now send and receive money between chat groups using the Messenger app on desktop and Android phones. Currently, Messenger payments only work in the US. Users will have to connect their debt cards to Messenger the first time they make or receive a payment. Card details are saved on Messenger. The company claims it uses encrypted systems to save user and card details. Users also have the option of adding a password for future transactions. Facebook claims, the new feature will help people when everyone in the group is splitting a bill or pitching in to fund or buy something. Payments and Facebook Facebook brought in David A Marcus, the former vice president of PayPal, to lead its messaging services in 2014. A year later, in March 2015, Messenger began peer-to-peer payments. Marcus has clarified in an interview to Recode that Facebook will not take cuts for payments and will instead focus on advertising to monetise. “Advertising is great. It’s a fantastic business. You [still] need to enable payments and all that kind of stuff to remove friction from the experience when someone wants to buy something. If you do that, then the value of that conversation for the business increases,” he was quoted. Platforms and payments Forays by social networks in the payment space has mostly been damp squibs, with the exceptions of Apple Pay and WeChat. Twitter shut down…
