Am I the only one that finds this hard to believe? Why is Facebook in a good position to authorize payments? They have very few credit cards on file. Besides FarmVille, et al, who exactly is giving their credit card info to Facebook?
In what context am I supposed to use Facebook to pay for things? If we're talking about mobile, then we're talking about smartphones. What exactly makes you think Google/Apple are going to lay down and give the keys to the mobile payment castle to Facebook? Google and Apple already have our credit card info, we all already buy things through Apple and Google, and it is a logical step that I would use that same process for buying something with my smartphone in a store.
I don't think it is a logical step for me to pull out my smartphone, open my Facebook app and use it to pay for something, anymore than it makes sense to use my Twitter app to pay, or Instagram for that matter.
In fact, if we're going to use a third party app to pay for things, I have an app from my bank, why not use that?
I just don't see Facebook getting in to mobile payments...