Facebook doing away with annoying requests to send friends gift cards
- Written by Editor
- Category: News Feeds
No, we don't think our friend would want this for her birthday.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...
Read more http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~3/9CjRpgBP63E/index.html


