As of late September, Facebook has launched it’s very own gift services where  users will be able to purchase and send real merchandise (teddy bears, vouchers, clothes, etc) to their friends. The new service features reminders linked to friend’s birthdays, ability to track delivery progress, and unwanted gift exchanges. To ensure satisfaction and convenience  the recipient will be sent a message to input their address, as well as their preferences of the buyer’s chosen gift (ie: size, color, etc). While this takes social networking to a new level and marks Facebook’s first attempt dealing with physical goods, we must consider the risks as it can be “potentially disruptive”. This gift service introduces Facebook into the e-commerce market, and if the service proves to be successful, Facebook will undoubtedly expand to more complex services other than small gifts. As a result, with Facebook’s popularity and it’s quick access to user information, it  has the potential to beat out other e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Ebay, and take over the virtual world.

Facebook has been growing and extracting user information like rapid fire, and has transformed itself into a necessity in an individual’s day to day life. Not only does Facebook have access to our current locations, schools, photos, and other private information, with the new e-commerce approach, they will now have our credit card information and home addresses.

The question of uncertainty remains: Is this safe?

References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9572936/Facebook-launches-real-gift-service.html