Facebook is now in the business of gift-giving.
The social network already is a place for its members to share milestones from birthdays to anniversaries, and the company launched a service called Gifts this week to add a new e-commerce component to the site.
Tens of millions of users in the US will see Gifts added to their Facebook pages, and will be able to send products from a select group of retailers.
Sending a gift is now “as easy as attaching a photo,” said Facebook’s Lee Linden, the executive behind the new service.
In the coming weeks Gifts will expand to every Facebook user in the US, Linden told The Post yesterday.
Facebook will split the revenue with select merchant partners, including Starbucks, Fab.com and Magnolia Bakers, he said.
Gifts is seen as a natural extension of Facebook’s social mission.
“Gift-giving is really a form of communication,” Linden said.
It’s speaking to Wall Street, which has reacted favorably to the potentially lucrative business, because it could be the key to encouraging users to engage in more commerce through the site.
The company already handles $4 billion in payments to third-party developers on the Facebook platform, but the payments side of the business has been flat-lining.
Susquehanna Financial Group has estimated Facebook could turn Gifts into a more than $850 million business by 2014.
Investors reacted yesterday to the news that the number of Gifts retailers was expanding by pushing Facebook shares up 6.3 percent to $23.56.