Facebook Shop driving Facebook stock to record highs, the support for digital currency payments becoming a hot topic

After social media giant Facebook launched the new feature "Facebook Shop," its stock price surged to a historic high of $230.75. On another front, its partnerships with Shopify and a cryptocurrency payment company, along with Facebook's stablecoin project Libra, have sparked discussions about the future payment options for Facebook Shop.

Facebook Founder Announces New Feature

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg officially announced on May 19th that a new feature called "Facebook Shop" will be launched shortly, allowing small businesses and the general public to easily set up shops and sell products directly within the Facebook app.

Following the announcement, the stock reached a historic high of $231 the next day, rising over 6%. This indicates that Wall Street is optimistic about the company's development in e-commerce.

According to a recent report from CNBC, Morgan Stanley stated in a report released today that this move could make Facebook a competitor to Amazon and Alphabet. Similarly, analysts at Deutsche Bank also praised Facebook's development direction, stating that Facebook Shop could bring the company $30 billion in business opportunities.

"We believe that Facebook Shop is a straightforward positive development, which could generate $30 billion in revenue opportunities from transactional spreads and advertising revenue."

Partner Shopify Introduces Cryptocurrency Payments

Canadian multinational e-commerce company Shopify is one of the key partners assisting Facebook in launching Facebook Shops, as emphasized by Zuckerberg in the May 19th announcement. Shopify, in their press release, revealed that they have been collaborating with Facebook since 2015, providing multi-channel commerce solutions for merchants.

Interestingly, the e-commerce company officially announced yesterday a strategic partnership with cryptocurrency payment processor CoinPayments. Established in 2013, CoinPayments primarily offers simple, fast, and secure cryptocurrency payment channels for global e-commerce systems or merchants, supporting over 1,900 tokens with a total transaction volume exceeding $5 billion.

The collaboration will introduce cryptocurrency payment capabilities for all Shopify customers, potentially including Facebook. In other words, the upcoming Facebook Shops may offer users the option to use cryptocurrency as a payment method.

Integration of Libra and Facebook Shops

On the other hand, Facebook's two current projects, "Libra" and "Facebook Shops," may have been part of a strategic plan that Facebook has been laying out for several years. Libra, announced by Facebook last summer, was a stablecoin project set to launch in 2020. However, due to regulatory hurdles in various countries, the project faced delays until the recent release of the whitepaper 2.0, showing a glimmer of hope for Libra's implementation.

Libra and Facebook Shops seem to have a mutually beneficial relationship. While Libra, as a digital currency, aims to expand rapidly in the market, relying solely on peer-to-peer transfers among users may not be enough. Facebook Shops can supplement Libra with additional use cases, accelerating its circulation in the global market. Additionally, Libra's characteristics such as cross-border transactions, instant settlement, and low fees are equally attractive to merchants and consumers using Facebook Shops. The integration of the two could become Facebook's biggest weapon in dominating the future e-commerce market.