Reportedly, Facebook Inc. (FB) has collaborated with TransferWise Ltd., an international money transfer service that will enable users to make international transactions over the Messenger app.

In Sep, 2016, Facebook’s Messenger provided tools to developers to enable ‘bots’ to accept and make payments within United States, thereby eliminating the need to redirect to an external website. This was directed to enhance commerce services as the credit/debit card details were stored on the platform and readily available while making purchases within bots. Reportedly, Facebook had collaborated with the likes of PayPal PYPL, Visa, MasterCard and American Express and others for the bot payment feature.

Collaboration with TransferWise will enable similar services, internationally.

Facebook, Inc. Price

Facebook, Inc. Price | Facebook, Inc. Quote

London-based TransferWise operates in a highly competitive global payments industry marked by the presence of traditional financial services companies such as MasterCard and Visa. Being an intermediary, it is vulnerable to competitive moves from these companies in the digital wallets space.The move to team up with Facebook is likely to be a positive for the money transfer company.

Messenger is the company’s third 1 billion user platform after Facebook and WhatsApp. The company remains pretty excited as it opened the app to developers for creating chatbots that will enable businesses to extend customer service and other transactions. Chatbots is the new buzz word in the tech space and could serve as a powerful strategy to monetize the platform.

Per media reports, TransferWise's chatbot in the Messenger app will help customers to send money to and from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and Europe and can also be used to set up exchange rate alerts.

Facebook has vastly outperformed the Zacks Internet Service industry so far in 2017. We note that shares have gained 26.63% as against the industry’s gain of 16.00% during the period.

Currently, Facebook has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks in the wider technology space are ARRIS International PLC ARRS, and Netflix Inc. NFLX. Both ARRIS and Netflix hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Notably, in the trailing four quarters, ARRIS and Netflix have generated a positive average earnings surprise of 21.33% and 141.35%, respectively.

Zacks' Top Investment Ideas for Long-Term Profit

How would you like to see our best recommendations to help you find today’s most promising long-term stocks? Starting now, you can look inside our portfolios featuring stocks under $10, income stocks, value investments and more. These picks, which have double and triple-digit profit potential, are rarely available to the public. But you can see them now. Click here >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
ARRIS International PLC (ARRS): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Facebook, Inc. (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research