PayPal Lets Facebook Friends Send Cash

Online financial transactions powerhouse PayPal released an application on Thursday that lets friends send one another cash at leading social network Facebook.

A "Send Money" application tailored for Facebook by PayPal lets members of the online community tie money to occasions such as birthdays or send it in an unadorned online transfer.

"We are bringing the largest online payments company to the world's largest social network to make it even easier to send money to your friends and family directly from Facebook," PayPal marketing manager JB Coutinho said in a blog post.

"Our new Send Money application on Facebook allows users to turn those wall posts into actual gifts," she said.

Gifts of money sent to Facebook members through PayPal can be announced with digital greeting cards, videos, or pictures. Links in e-cards or messages are followed to culminate in cash transfers.

PayPal charges no fee for people to send money to Facebook members in the United States as long as transactions are done through accounts with banks or the eBay-owned online financial service.

"PayPal is going to where friends and family connect now," Coutinho said of the reasoning behind the application. "Imagine the smile when someone gets money for a cold beer and a message saying 'This one is on me.'"

The release of the PayPal application for Facebook came the same day that Skype improved its software to allow Facebook members to engage in video calls with one another using the Internet telephony service.

Skype, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, began powering video calling at Facebook in July.

Facebook is the world's largest social network with more than 800 million members.