The company's new partners include AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, among others. Under the new deal, consumers will be able to pay for their Facebook Credits via carrier billing. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor (pictured) said the payments experience on the web is "broken" and added, "Even with operator billing support most require a step called SMS device verification. That means if I'm in the middle of the game and want to pay 99 cents, I have to wait for an SMS to arrive," according to Inside Facebook.
In a further annoyance, Taylor said that after the SMS arrives, the user has to verify that their device is connected to their Facebook account.
“Then I have to awkwardly memorize the code and resubmit the transactions,” he said. “If I manage to make it this far, then I can finally go back to playing the game.” Facebook reps could not be reached for further comment.
The announcement comes as Facebook is prepping for its $5 billion IPO and is said to be setting its sights on monetizing its mobile operations via advertising. It's not clear what Facebook's stake in mobile payments would be. According to reports, Facebook is promising the telecoms a greater share of revenues and influence that the current mobile titans -- Apple and Google -- offer.
Taylor also told The Telegraph that if Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook today it would be a mobile app, rather than a web-based entity.