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Why Facebook Was So Aggressive About Migrating Users Over to Messenger (fastcompany.com)
8 points by DocFeind on Oct 6, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment



Facebook's implementation aside, the user-to-user payment feature can be very useful. My SO and I both have Google Wallet accounts and one of the things we use often is the "send money" option. She cuts a check for the mortgage payment every month and rather than set up a third joint account (such commitment!) or write two checks, I can just open Wallet and send her my share. It's not much different than setting up a bank transfer or using Paypal but the implementation makes it much more straightforward. I'm basically sending her a message and "attaching" some money.

Same thing with going out somewhere and splitting a check with a few people. If nobody has cash (which happens often enough), it's easy for me to just pay the tab and then the rest just send me their share. It shows up in a minute or two and there's no fuss with splitting checks or deciding who owes who the next time we go out.

Probably one of those things where I'm trading some info about my interpersonal connections for convenience but frankly it's much more streamlined than Paypal ever was and accomplishes the same thing. It's no wonder Facebook wants in on that with Wallet and now Apple Pay getting into the same sort of functionality.




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