Facebook already has a former PayPal worker as its Vice President of Messaging Products – and, now, Christina Smedley from the payment firm is set to join Facebook to run communications for Messenger.
The news has been sourced by TechCrunch, which reported – after a tip from one of its readers – that both Facebook and PayPal have now confirmed the job change. Smedley had been the latter company’s Vice President of Global Brand and Communications.
A PayPal spokesperson told the tech news site: “We wish Christina all the best and thank her for her many contributions to our company over the past three years”, adding that the company’s Brand and Communications teams “are excited to build on PayPal’s momentum and to extend and deepen the influence of the PayPal brand as we engage our 170 million active customers around the world”.
It is unclear whether Smedley’s commerce experience particularly drove Facebook’s decision to recruit her. Facebook recently detailed a list of various e-commerce features it is or will be testing, and it is possible that Smedley – along with fellow ex-PayPal staffer David Marcus – could help the world’s most popular social networking site to overcome a so far choppy record in developing functions for e-commerce companies and customers.
