Facebook密謀打造網上銀行

????不遠的將來，Facebook的用戶可以一邊上傳度假照片向好友們炫耀，一邊付水電賬單、進行支票本對賬甚至匯錢。

????當然，社交網絡的核心使命還是通過幫助人們分享生活，從而打造一個聯系更緊密的世界。但人們也需要保有一些隱私，比如銀行業務。因此，Facebook決定支持這些私密服務。

????“總有一些事情，不管是金融服務還是銀行業務，我并不想讓我的朋友知道，對吧？”在上個月底于紐約舉行的證券業和金融市場協會（Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association, SIFMA）的研討會上，面對濟濟一堂的銀行家，Facebook美國金融服務部門的全球營銷解決方案總監戴維?羅賓遜如此發問。“我希望能夠一登陸Facebook就可以和我的顧問或者銀行交流，而且是一對一的交流。”

????Facebook正在不動聲色地和澳大利亞的澳洲聯邦銀行（Commonwealth Bank）安排這樣的服務。應用程序在3月份完成第一個版本，目前正處于內部測試，有望在年內正式向客戶發布。據銀行透露，該程序將允許銀行客戶以Facebook用戶的身份通過Facebook向第三方或者Facebook好友匯款。發言人稱，該銀行將使用自身的認證系統來確保交易安全，與其網上銀行和移動銀行的保密方式類似。

????Facebook拒絕對其在銀行業的努力直接置評。但羅賓遜明白無誤地傳達了Facebook 希望其它金融機構跟進的愿望。Facebook的想法是，通過在通常非常公開的社交渠道中創造私密體驗，銀行可以更好地和客戶交流，而Facebook也將得到更多流量，還可以打開通向其它盈利機會的大門。

????澳洲聯邦銀行并不是第一家在Facebook上提供金融交易的機構。Facebook的前首席隱私官克里斯?凱利現任Loyal3的顧問，這家創業公司允許Facebook用戶購買他們鐘愛的公司的股份，以分數計都可以，然后還能在Facebook上分享。Loyal3今年早些時候與Fifth & Pacific Companies公司 一起發動了這個項目，這家上市公司擁有Juicy Couture, Kate Spade和其它時尚品牌。

????不過不同的是，Loyal3可以假設消費者愿意告訴他人他們是某品牌的擁躉，銀行業卻知道大部分個人金融活動天生就是私密的。即使完全明了此類活動不可能被分享，Facebook依然鼓勵金融機構為之提供方便，因為銀行業務可以拓展Facebook的網絡，讓用戶在網站的停留的時間更長久。

????羅賓遜注意到，目前僅有16%的品牌粉絲群真正與品牌所屬公司的Facebook頁面進行過互動。如果找到其它方法讓用戶和品牌在Facebook上互動，就能幫助那些尋求加強社交媒體存在的財富500強公司，當然也會幫助Facebook本身的成長。

????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 it?s financial services, or banking where I don?t necessarily want my friends to know exactly what I?m 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.