The eBay (EBAY 1.32%) of old is becoming a distant memory. The digital flea market of the late '90s has given way to a company that's increasingly a play on digital payments. The majority of the company's profits still come from its Marketplace segment, where items are bid on and sold, but that's not where its growth is coming from. While its Marketplace segment saw profits grow a respectable 12% last year, its PayPal division saw profits surge 39%, powering the company's overall growth.
Yet the payments space is still in somewhat of a land-grab phase as companies as big as Google continue testing out their own services in the space. In the following video, tech analysts Eric Bleeker and Daniel Sparks discuss why Facebook (META 0.43%) could be a powerful entrant into the mobile payment space. Just this week, reports surfaced that Facebook is testing tying in the ability to make purchases with Facebook IDs. The company has already built in a login system so universal that it's used across the Web on even the largest sites, such as ESPN.com. With Facebook being the closest thing to a universal Web login, the idea of adding credit card data to user profiles to facilitate e-commerce is a tantalizing idea.
To see Eric and Daniel's thoughts on Facebook moving into the payment space, watch the video.
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