Facebook tests payments on Pages in Southeast Asia

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Facebook is testing a feature in which users can pay for products listed on Facebook Pages. The trial is being conducted using technology from fintech startup 2C2P. Reports TechCrunch:

Qwik, a product that is powered by Southeast Asia-based fintech company 2C2P, which raised a US$7 million series C last year, allows users to make payment via a credit card, debit card or bank transfer online, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the trial. Facebook and 2C2P both declined to comment.

TechCrunch understands that Facebook is trialling Qwik with an unspecified number of top Facebook Pages in Thailand, some of which have multiple millions of fans. Once a user taps the link, it redirects them to a new site where they can enter their credit/debit card details or provide their bank account which, with authorization, triggers a bank transfer like an ATM.

Multiple sources in Thailand’s ecommerce space told us that Facebook is planning to widen the trials to other countries in Southeast Asia over time, but it picked Thailand first because of the large market for social media commerce.

The social network has become a prominent platform not just to connect with friends, but also to transact. Unlike WeChat however, Facebook has been slow to capitalize on this. It only launched peer-to-peer payments last year, and it’s still not available everywhere.

Anyway, it’s too early to say what a final merchant-to-consumer payments infrastructure on Facebook could look like. This is after all still a trial, and as we’ve found out, not all of Facebook’s test products catch fire.