Facebook is shutting down its P2P payment service in the UK and France after the Messenger-based service failed to gain traction with consumers.
Facebook got all the major UK banks and card firms onboard in 2017 for the service's first foray outside of the US, where it launched in 2015.
To send money through Messenger, users needed to press the blue plus symbol within a chat and select the payment option. The first time a payment was made, users from both sides of the chat were prompted to add their debit card details and then enter the amount they wanted to send.
The two-way nature of the signup process appears to have been a significant stumbling block in take-up.
A Messenger spokesman says: “We are terminating the ability to send and receive payments in Messenger in both the UK and France effective June 15. After evaluating how we give people the best experiences in Messenger, we made the decision to focus our efforts on experiences that people find most useful. Users have been notified in preparation for this change.”
The ability to complete other transactions, such as making donations to charitable organisations, will remain in place.