Just a couple days ago, we wrote that businesses are flocking to Facebook, and now the social media giant announced a strategic relationship with PayPal. “We want to give the people who use Facebook, as well as advertisers and developers, a fast and trusted way to pay across our service,” said Dan Levy, director of payment operations, Facebook. “As our business has grown, offering local methods of payment has become increasingly important for advertisers who want to buy Facebook Ads.”
With this announcement, Facebook’s march into local advertising is taking form with surprising potential that should capture the attention of local media. Explains Mike Melanson with ReadWriteWeb, “Facebook recently dropped Microsoft as an advertiser because it doesn’t want to go in the direction of a small number of advertisers spending big dollars – it wants millions of small advertisers to take advantage of its advertising capabilities.” Local advertisers who typically spend on local media and Yellow Pages.
And there’s another very interesting component of the deal. PayPal will become a payment option for “Facebook Credits,” which Facebook describes as a “fast and easy way to buy virtual goods on Facebook, including items from the Facebook Gift Shop.” Facebook says the credits are currently testing in a small number of games and applications. Stay tuned…
