Facebook is reportedly looking to get into the mobile payments game. If it does it right, businesses will reap the benefit of monetizing their Facebook presence and be able to simplify the process of turning Facebook followers into revenue.

Rivals should be worried any time an 800-pound gorilla like Facebook enters a market. Facebook is the online destination where users spend the most time each month, and with a billion-ish users it represents a dominating force in whatever market it chooses to compete.

Facebook’s business courtship

Mobile payments is a logical culmination of the framework Facebook has put in place for businesses. Businesses have been encouraged to develop a Facebook presence and build a following of loyal customers to “Like” and share information about the company with their extended social networks. Brick-and mortar-businesses encourage customers to check-in so the they can increase visiblity among the customers’s Facebook friends. All of that effort also ties in to the Facebook Graph Search functionality to enable Facebook users to identify the music, restaurants, movies, and other things their extended social network likes.

With Facebook mobile payments, businesses can streamline the process of turning that social relationship with customters into a revenue stream. The idea has always been to promote the business and hopefully generate revenue, but if those billion potential customers can use the tool they’re already logged into to do business with the companies they already Like and follow, it will make it that much easier.

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