Facebook introduces Gift purchasing to mobile apps
updated 10:23 am EDT, Fri September 28, 2012
Hopes to increase mobile revenues
Facebook has added the ability to buy presents for other users of the social network. Facebook Gifts, created following the purchase of mobile social gifting service Karma back in May, allows for the buying of physical gifts for other Facebook users, without needing to know where the gift recipient lives.
Gift buyers can choose items from over 100 retailers, and can choose to alert the receiver through their timeline or a private message. A preview of the gift can then be “unwrapped” onscreen, and then have the opportunity to adjust the color, size, or flavor, or even exchange it for another item of equal value. The friend then enters their address for delivery, and gets the gift sent to them in the following days.
As the Karma-powered service works with mobile app versions of Facebook, this could be a method for the company to increase mobile-based revenues, something that it has been keen to improve.
Facebook Gifts will roll out gradually, with the US the first to be able to use the service.
