Facebook Considers Integrating Uber Into Messaging Service

Zuckerberg To Strike A Blow Against Texting While Driving

Facebook is considering integrating mobile cab service Uber into its messenger app, according to early reports from anonymous sources.

Mark Zuckerberg has met with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to discuss preliminary plans for a merging of the two services, and while there are no stated plans at this time such a move would be consistent with the social media company’s restated plans to continue the monetising of their services following the record profits announced last week.

Two factors are particularly relevant in asserting the likelihood of this rumour. The first is Facebook’s recent introduction of a ‘Buy’ button to certain business’ pages, part of a long-term plan to make the site a centre for ecommerce. Uber already requires that users have their credit card information saved to their profile; by bringing the taxi service’s existing users into the Facebook fold the social media site may be hoping to avoid the hard work of encouraging users to register their details. Just as Facebook’s own users are valuable because of the mass of demographic data they provide, so too may Uber be valuable to Facebook not because Zuckerberg has any inherent interest in the cab service per se, but rather in the data which the company holds.

The second aspect of this deal is Zuckerberg’s own statement about his ‘excitement’ at the potential of messenger services; the company’s purchase of WhatsApp and alleged failed takeover of Snapchat demonstrates that messaging services are still at the forefront of the Facebook CEO’s mind.

Zuckerberg also said that Facebook would not ‘take the cheap and easy approach and just try to put ads in’. If Facebook is indeed looking to monetise its messaging services without simply using them as an advertising platform then integrating other app-based commercial services is as good a method as any.

The move is, of course, beneficial to Uber as well. The Facebook Messenger app has approximately 200 million monthly users, compared to Uber’s approximately 860,000. Of course not everyone who uses the Messenger app will order a taxi, but it will certainly vastly increase the number of eyes on the service.

The concept is also not without precedent: in China (where Facebook is blocked) users of messaging app WeChat can use an integrated taxi-ordering service called Didi Dache.

The plan is not without its potential hiccups, however. Users may be reluctant to use an integrated service for the same reasons that they are reluctant to utilise the ecommerce opportunities which Facebook is beginning to offer: primarily a concern over the safety and privacy of their details on a site which has had its fair share of leaks and other bad publicity.

Additionally, Uber has taken $258 million of investment money from Google and already uses Google maps for its car tracking service. The search engine giant may not be wholly on board with Uber then going with Facebook over their own social network Google+.

Regardless of these obstacles, both Facebook and Uber have good reason to pursue this deal. If it does go through (and there is not much but concept at this stage) it could mark the start of a whole new phase of social media’s integration in our day-to-day lives.

Douglas Clarke-Williams

Douglas is an English Literature graduate who has written about everything from music to food to theatre, now a content creator for Social Media Frontiers. No topic too large or too small. Follow him @DouglasAtSMF.

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