Dive Brief:

• Facebook said it will begin rolling out its payment service, Facebook Pay, on Facebook and Messenger in the U.S. this week. In a Tuesday blog post, the company said it plans to eventually launch the service on Instagram and WhatsApp.

• The company said the new payments system supports most major credit and debit cards, as well as PayPal. 

• "Payments are processed in partnership with companies like PayPal and Stripe, and is built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships," the company said.

Dive Insight:

Although Facebook already allows person-to-person payments through Messenger, the new service promises to unify the company's payments capabilities through its suite of platforms. 

"Facebook Pay is part of our ongoing work to make commerce more convenient, accessible and secure for people on our apps," Deborah Liu, Facebook vice president of marketplace and commerce, said in a blog post. "And in doing so, we believe we can help businesses grow and empower people everywhere to buy and sell things online. We'll continue to develop Facebook Pay and look for ways to make it even more valuable for people on our apps."

The company said Facebook Pay is separate from the digital wallet Calibra, which will run on the Libra network, the company’s controversial cryptocurrency project. 

The Facebook Pay launch comes just a month after the exodus of major payments companies from the Libra project. Mastercard, Stripe, Visa and PayPal, among others, have backed out, leaving the Libra Association without a major U.S. payments company. 

Yet, it appears the lack of confidence in Facebook's Libra project has not deterred the social media giant from entering the highly competitive person-to-person mobile payments space, where its competitors include Square's Cash App, PayPal's Venmo and Apple Pay.

Facebook said customers can use the service for fundraisers, in-game purchases, event tickets, person-to-person payments on Messenger, and purchases from select businesses on Facebook Marketplace.