Facebook's answer to Apple Pay rolling out to U.S. businesses in August

"Starting this August, businesses in the US who use participating platforms will have the ability to enable Facebook Pay as a payment option directly on their websites"

What you need to know

• Facebook Pay is coming to more websites and businesses in the U.S.
• The company has announced it will roll out the service to any business that wants to enable it.
• Facebook Pay, like Apple Pay, lets users seamlessly check out whilst shopping online without re-entering their payment info.

Facebook says that its rival to Apple Pay, Facebook Pay, is coming to more businesses and websites later this year.

The company has announced that it is extending the availability of Facebook Pay beyond its own platforms to businesses that want to provide "a seamless checkout experience" for their customers on their own websites.

Facebook says that from August, US businesses that use participating platforms will have the option to enable Facebook Pay as an option for customers at checkout. Like Apple Pay, Facebook pay lets users enter their payment information once, rather than having to re-enter it each time they want to buy something. Facebook says the rollout will begin with Shopify merchants, with expanding availability coming over time.

Facebook says its payment system "is designed to help businesses drive conversion higher by giving customers a low-friction and mobile-friendly way to pay online" and that details are encrypted and securely stored, "eliminating the need for businesses to manage customers' card or bank account numbers." The company also says that details are not used to inform people's advertisements or experiences on the platform.

A link for businesses that wish to sign up for Facebook Pay and receive product and availability updates is listed but the web page had not gone live at the time of publication.

The news comes following reports earlier this week that Apple is working on an 'Apple Pay Later' initiative that could let users finance purchases.

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