Libra Will Allow Facebook to Spike Ad Prices, Zuckerberg Says

The proposed Libra cryptocurrency will allow Facebook to increase ad prices, the social network’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, according to a transcript provided to Cointelegraph by the Novi press team.

At the event, Zuckerberg was asked how Facebook plans to profit from integrating Libra into its services.

The social network CEO replied by saying that Libra will make commerce more beneficial for businesses, and thereby increase ad revenue. Last year, Facebook earned around $69.6 billion from selling ads, which constituted more than 98% of their total income in 2019.

Zuckerberg said:

“When they run an ad, somebody clicks on that ad and is now going to be more likely to buy something because they actually have a form of payment that works that’s on file; then it basically becomes worth it more for the businesses to bid higher in the ads. And what we see are higher prices for the ads overall.”

In Facebook CEO’s view, payments “is an area that the core infrastructure hasn’t been updated in a very long time”, which is why Libra is poised to make it more efficient.

Calibra’s recent rebranding

Earlier this week, Facebook-owned digital wallet, Calibra — designed for Libra distribution, rebranded itself as Novi to avoid confusion with the cryptocurrency. In addition, Novi detailed an integration with WhatsApp, another Facebook-controlled entity which boasts 2 billion active users.

Novi is scheduled to launch “when the Libra network is available and we have secured all the licenses or approvals necessary to offer the services,” a representative for the company previously told Cointelegraph.

Facebook is not giving up despite regulator scrutiny

Initially, Libra was planning to launch in the first half of 2020, but the company has since entered into a drawn out conversation with authorities worldwide.

In April 2020, the Libra Association updated its white paper, hoping to make the project more attractive for regulators. It has also gone on a hiring spree in a bid to bolster its legitimacy with compliance veterans.