Facebook (FB) is further dipping its toe into physical payments and launching a new, branded
The social networking giant made the cards, which are redeemable at Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target, available to its users last week. The Facebook Card is reloadable and one card can be at all four merchants. Users set up different buckets of money to use at any of those chains.
An email sent to Facebook's press department was not immediately returned.
"It's an interesting product because it's new and it's on Facebook, which has a large audience," says payments consultant Philip J. Philliou. "It's not interesting in that it is closed loop."
The cards are being issued through Sutton Bank, an approximately $350 million asset institution in Attica, Ohio. The Facebook Card is using Discover's network in order to facilitate its transactions.
A Discover spokeswoman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Facebook generated $810 million, or almost 16% of its revenue, from "payments and other fees" last year, the company said in its
Facebook also generates a profit from facilitating its digital currency,
This fall, Facebook also launched a gifts program that lets people pay for physical presents over the social networking platform.
Right now, however, the company is most likely just experimenting with different models before it decides on how best to make its big entrance into payments, says Nick Holland, a principal analyst leading with Yankee Group's Mobile Money research.
"They are just trying stuff out," he says. "I don't think that they really worked out what they want to be when they grow up."
