Facebook Deals will be group deals – you can bank on it

Facebook could also become a very big bank

The much talked-about Facebook Deals will launch shortly. When Facebook announced its intentions to go into the ‘deals’ market, initial commentary focused on the social network’s ambition to take on daily deal digital giants like Groupon and LivingSocial. Now, however, it’s emerging that Facebook Deals will initially just concentrate on ‘social deals’ i.e. “things you can do with your friends”.
When it’s launched, Facebook Deals will concentrate on group deals rather than one-off individual offers. It’s more a ‘book a weekend away in a cottage in the West of Ireland for a group of mates’ rather than ‘get a cheap pair of shoes’ kind of thing.
It appears Facebook Deals will be available for longer than a day and people will be able to pay for them using Facebook Credits. It may well be (and this is mere speculation) that people will get an even better ‘deal’ if they buy them using Facebook’s own currency. The setting up of the wholly-owned subsidiary, Facebook Payments Inc. in December 2010, suggests Facebook is very ambitious in its plans for its currency. Becoming a licensed financial institution would be vital for Facebook Credits because it allows companies to transfer cash in and out of their own systems.
Facebook Deals is, as many suggest, another step towards it becoming one of the biggest markets in the world. It has over 600 million ‘citizens’ and with its own currency, it also has the potential to make serious money. Real money. Bank money.