Facebook密谋打造网上银行

    不远的将来，Facebook的用户可以一边上传度假照片向好友们炫耀，一边付水电账单、进行支票本对账甚至汇钱。

    当然，社交网络的核心使命还是通过帮助人们分享生活，从而打造一个联系更紧密的世界。但人们也需要保有一些隐私，比如银行业务。因此，Facebook决定支持这些私密服务。

    “总有一些事情，不管是金融服务还是银行业务，我并不想让我的朋友知道，对吧？”在上个月底于纽约举行的证券业和金融市场协会（Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association, SIFMA）的研讨会上，面对济济一堂的银行家，Facebook美国金融服务部门的全球营销解决方案总监戴维•罗宾逊如此发问。“我希望能够一登陆Facebook就可以和我的顾问或者银行交流，而且是一对一的交流。”

    Facebook正在不动声色地和澳大利亚的澳洲联邦银行（Commonwealth Bank）安排这样的服务。应用程序在3月份完成第一个版本，目前正处于内部测试，有望在年内正式向客户发布。据银行透露，该程序将允许银行客户以Facebook用户的身份通过Facebook向第三方或者Facebook好友汇款。发言人称，该银行将使用自身的认证系统来确保交易安全，与其网上银行和移动银行的保密方式类似。

    Facebook拒绝对其在银行业的努力直接置评。但罗宾逊明白无误地传达了Facebook 希望其它金融机构跟进的愿望。Facebook的想法是，通过在通常非常公开的社交渠道中创造私密体验，银行可以更好地和客户交流，而Facebook也将得到更多流量，还可以打开通向其它盈利机会的大门。

    澳洲联邦银行并不是第一家在Facebook上提供金融交易的机构。Facebook的前首席隐私官克里斯•凯利现任Loyal3的顾问，这家创业公司允许Facebook用户购买他们钟爱的公司的股份，以分数计都可以，然后还能在Facebook上分享。Loyal3今年早些时候与Fifth & Pacific Companies公司 一起发动了这个项目，这家上市公司拥有Juicy Couture, Kate Spade和其它时尚品牌。

    不过不同的是，Loyal3可以假设消费者愿意告诉他人他们是某品牌的拥趸，银行业却知道大部分个人金融活动天生就是私密的。即使完全明了此类活动不可能被分享，Facebook依然鼓励金融机构为之提供方便，因为银行业务可以拓展Facebook的网络，让用户在网站的停留的时间更长久。

    罗宾逊注意到，目前仅有16%的品牌粉丝群真正与品牌所属公司的Facebook页面进行过互动。如果找到其它方法让用户和品牌在Facebook上互动，就能帮助那些寻求加强社交媒体存在的财富500强公司，当然也会帮助Facebook本身的成长。

    Someday soon, Facebook users may pay their utility bills, balance their checkbooks, and transfer money at the same time they upload vacation photos to the site for friends to see.

    Sure, the core mission of the social media network is to make the world more connected by helping people share their lives. But Facebook knows people want to keep some things -- banking, for example -- private. And it wants to support those services too.

    "There are certain things, whether itʼs financial services, or banking where I donʼt necessarily want my friends to know exactly what Iʼm doing, right?" David Robinson, Facebook's director of global marketing solutions, U.S. financial services, asked a crowded room of bankers at a Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) seminar in New York late last month. "I want to be able to go in and have an experience with my advisor or my bank and have that be a one-on-one experience."

    Facebook is quietly planning just such an offering with Australia's Commonwealth Bank. Currently in an internal beta, with the first version built in March, the application is expected to launch sometime this year to customers. It will allow Facebook users who are bank customers to make payments to third parties as well as Facebook friends through the social media channel, according to the bank. Commonwealth will secure transactions with its own authentication system -- similar to how payments are secured on its online and mobile banking site, a spokesperson says.

    Facebook declined to comment specifically on the banking push. But Robinson is clearly communicating to the banking community that Facebook (FB) hopes other financial institutions will follow. The hope is that by creating private experiences on social media's normally very public channel, banks can better engage customers, not to mention drive more traffic to Facebook, and open the doors to other avenues where the company can monetize its platform.

    Commonwealth won't be the first institution to enable financial transactions on Facebook. Facebook's former chief privacy officer Chris Kelly is an advisor to Loyal3, a startup that allows Facebook users to buy fractions of shares in companies they love, and to share that on Facebook. Loyal3 launched the program earlier this year with Fifth & Pacific Companies (FNP), the publicly-traded owner of Juicy Couture, Kate Spade and other fashion brands.

    But while Loyal3 assumes consumers will want to share the fact that they're fans of a brand, the banking community knows that most personal financial activities are inherently private. And here Facebook is encouraging financial institutions to enable activities, like banking, with full knowledge that they won't be shared, but they will still be ways to potentially broaden Facebook's network and keep people engaged on the site longer.

    Currently, just 16% of a brand's fan base actually engages with a company's Facebook page, notes Robinson. So finding other ways for users to interact with brands on Facebook could help Fortune 500 firms that are looking to grow their social media presence, while of course helping Facebook grow as well.