The laziest way to send your nearest and dearest a gift is gone: Facebook has announced that it’s killing off its Gifts service entirely as of August 12.
This time last year, Facebook shuttered the part of its gift service that allowed users to order physical presents through the site. Instead, for the past twelve months you’ve been able to send digital gift cards to friends on the social network. Now, though, reports Re/code, it’s decided to shut down the whole outfit.
According to Facebook, the decision is part of a move to help developers and businesses that use Facebook to drive their own sales, rather than turning Facebook into its own online store. Indeed, Facebook has recently been trialling a Buy button, asserting itself as kind of storefront where it handles the transactions and third parties fulfil the orders.
That may be true. But the other reason that Facebook is shutting down Gifts? Because nobody used it. [Re/code]