Marcus can see a future in which Facebook turns payments and digital wallets into a new business -- even if he’s not exactly sure what that will look like.
“Over time, if we build more services on top of Libra, we’re probably going to likely index on other sources of income,” he said. “That’s future talk. We’re not going to do that for the first few years of this ecosystem because we want to focus on adoption.”
Whether or not Facebook gets that adoption is the more pressing challenge. The company’s crypto plans are already under fire from regulators in Washington and Europe who don’t like the idea of Facebook dipping its toe in yet another aspect of people’s personal lives. And gaining consumer trust after years of privacy mishaps may be harder than Facebook expects. Bernstein’s Rawat describes Libra as “somewhat of a moonshot project.”
If people do start stuffing their new digital wallets with Libra, it might not take years for Facebook to turn that activity into revenue. Marcus believes the new wallets could have a more immediate financial impact on a business line Facebook knows well: Targeted advertising. If users have Libra on hand as they scroll through Facebook’s News Feed, when they click on an ad it will be easier to buy something. That would make Facebook ads more appealing to marketers.
“If there is more commerce happening on the platform, then small businesses will end up spending more and advertising will be more effective for them,” he said.
This story provided by Bloomberg.