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ePayments Week: Facebook's focus on mobileThe social network gets hyperlocal, data privacy promises abound, and mobile app revenues could triple.Mobile, hyperlocal, privacy, and a PayPal departure topped the list of notable topics in the payment space this week. Mobile is Facebook's top priority
On Wednesday Facebook said it had bought Seattle start-up Rel8tion, which (according to All Things D's Tricia Duryee) has been working on hyperlocal advertising. That term means different things to different people, but at its best, hyperlocal aims to deliver ads and coupons based on geolocation data accurate to three feet or less. As in, you're standing right in front of what a company wants you to buy. Facebook characterized the purchase as a "talent acquisition." Finally, rumors are still churning that Facebook will close the loop with Facebook-branded phones, manufactured by handset maker HTC. All Things Digital's Ina Fried reminded us that these rumors have been around for a while and that with Facebook's prominence on some mobile interfaces, one wonders why it would bother with a hardware deal. Straight faces, please, for Data Privacy DayIn a week that leads up to Data Privacy Day, we see so many conflicting signals that it's hard to know whether to be disgusted or just slightly nervous. On Wednesday, The Facebook Blog featured a post by one of the company's engineers detailing things Facebook is doing to improve security (e.g. opt-in to always connect using HTTPS, and new CAPTCHA system that verifies with friends' faces rather than passwords). But this came the same week that Facebook announced a plan to recycle your likes and check-ins as paid ads delivered to your friends' pages. Worse, there appears to be no way to opt-out — though I suspect that, as it has done before when it crossed lines that teed off members, Facebook will retreat from that position. The launch of a Groupon-style buying program on Wednesday, based on purchases made with Facebook credits, is certain to confuse the issue just a bit more. Meanwhile, after 15 years playing first the heavy and then the waning superpower, Microsoft must certainly enjoy taking the high ground on the privacy issue. It released a report on Wednesday showing that as more users become aware of how much location data they are sharing, they are becoming increasingly worried. Like buildings and politicians, perhaps even old software leviathans can gain respectability if they endure long enough. Gartner: Mobile app revenue could triple in 2011
PayPal platform lead departsIn its recent report on 2010 numbers, eBay emphasized the rising value of mobile, as it nearly tripled its gross mobile payments to $2 billion in 2010. The growth of that stream will continue to depend on the integration of PayPal with third-party apps built atop PayPal's open development platform. That platform is changing leadership this week as Osama Bedier, who has led PayPal's efforts to develop the open platform, leaves for Google. PayPal's CTO Scott Guilfoyle made the announcement on Wednesday. Bedier will be replaced by Matthew Mengerink, a 10-year veteran of PayPal, who has led a variety of PayPal's architecture and development teams.
[Disclosure: O'Reilly works with PayPal on the PayPal X Developer Network.]
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Facebook's forays into mobile commerce are all around this week, as the social leader begins to tie together the elements that would make its Places app and other mobile functions into significant earners. On Tuesday, CTO Bret Taylor was at the 
Market research firm 
Comments: 2
Ajeet [28 January 2011 04:41 AM]
I remember the time when people used to say that FaceBook has no business model at all. Things have come a full circle and now, I think, focusing on ePayments might be the savior and other dotoms.
Bill Day [29 January 2011 07:26 AM]
Facebook and Google have both drunk the mobile koolaid this year it seems. I wonder how closely Apple's paying attention?
There are definitely some interesting opportunities here for developers using PayPal, Facebook, and Google technologies. In fact we write a lot about that intersection vis-a-vis PayPal X Platform, Facebook APIs, and Android in particular on the PayPal X DevZone. My latest series of posts in fact is on what I'm calling "MoSoLo" (mobile+social+local) and I'm kicking it off with a four part look at Facebook's technologies and APIs. You can check it out if interested via: https://www.x.com/community/ppx/devzone/blog/authors/billday