Facebook reportedly working on PayPal-like mobile payments system

Soon you might be able to pay for something in a mobile app using your Facebook account login credentials, rather than a service like PayPal.

AllThingsD reports Facebook is launching a test version of the product in the next month or two. The service would take on competing products from a wide array of players including PayPal, Google, Amazon, Stripe, Braintree, and Klarna.

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The popular JackThreads app, which generates lots of revenue for Thrillist, is reportedly a pilot partner for the Facebook payments service. The company has a good relationship with Facebook, so the pairing makes sense.

There are two big incentives for Facebook to have its own PayPal competitor. One, it can generate revenue by taking a small cut of each transaction. Two, and maybe more importantly, it gets people to put their credit cards on file and gives Facebook more insight into its users’ shopping habits.

But Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru told AllThingsD that Facebook will have a tough time trying to collect credit card information.

“Nobody trusts social networks with their financial information, and they are certainly not going to trust Facebook,” she said. “Maybe they have a few million people that have bought something on things like FarmVille, but that does not a network make.”