Facebook doing away with annoying requests to send friends gift cards

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

You will no longer be prompted with a wrapped-present icon to send your friends a Starbucks(SBUX) or Target(PBCFX) gift card on their birthdays -- Facebook's(FB, Tech30) Gifts service is set to be discontinued.

Launched in September 2012, Gifts will no longer be available as of August 12, according to a Re/code report. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Gifts app was already scaled down from allowing users to purchase and send tangible presents, to exclusively e-gift cards activated by digital codes.

Related: Facebook says: If you Like it, Buy it

 

The move seems to be in line with a new e-commerce strategy for the social networking giant. The Gifts news comes just days after the company revealed its new "Buy" button -- an embeddable feature similar to the "Like" button that allows users to make purchases from a selection of small businesses partnered with Facebook.

Facebook's recently revealed second quarter results showed the company's major growth in mobile. The social network's experimentation with e-commerce ventures may present another opportunity for engagement with smartphone users -- both vendors and shoppers.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 12:09 PM ET...