ChipIn, a free widget based service that enables users to collect money has launched a Facebook application that brings micropayments to Facebook.
ChipIn on Facebook supports existing Facebook events or can be used separately with ChipIn created events. Creation of new “ChipIn’s” is simple, the ChipIn Widget can be customized using photos from a users Facebook account and each ChipIn can also be promoted directly to Facebook friends.
We covered Lending Club, the exclusive Facebook P2P lending service on June 20; ChipIn is at the other end of the spectrum targeting micropayments, yet together they demonstrate the continuing growth of finance on Facebook. There is any number of new Facebook applications being launched daily, and whilst many provide a wow factor and are useful, not that many to date have a real world financial use. It’s not too farfetched to imagine ChipIn being used as a political or charity fundraising tool on Facebook in the near future. 
Seems like http://www.kushcash.com kinda.
Good piece. I think you meant to say you covered Lending Club, not Lending Tree.
You’re of course right Leonard, changed now + thanks
i have tried it. isn’it just a glorified link to paypal? and any word on how much they charge?
Seems like an interesting idea!
Heri,
Aloha. Chipin charges no fees for the service. We currently offer Paypal as the payment mechanism and they charge their own fees. Additional payment services will be offered in the future. Chipin widgets are more than just a Paypal link as each one tracks number of contributors and total number of dollars collected. We will soon release a “contributors” list so facebook users can easily track who has given. Lots more features coming to make Chipin an effective tool for Facebook users to collect money from their friends. Our team is coding as fast as they can
Mark Z,
If you’re going to write an obnoxious post, at least have the balls to use your own name.
I think that photo insert to service web good.
go to web search item before BUY!
http://www.reviewitem.com
So how will they make money? Are they trying to beat BlackBaud to this space?
Founders will probably get this one, too, not Suckoya.
Well when it comes to making money online it seems the silent drivers of actual profits are only paypal and ebay with their moving of actual funds. This would just be another system to skim some money from transactions al a paypal or google checkout style.
Same idea those who hold or move the cash collect it whats stopping any of us from starting are own bank?
And this is a good idea because….?
Micropayments may work but I fail to understand how doing it through Facebook is the answer. The only people in a position to make micropayments work would be someone with mass scale themselves that already had a lot of credit card numbers – namely Amazon.
Between going ga-ga over stupid Facebook applications that impact an entire 0.00000001% of the world and bemoaning Last.fm’s not joining the “National Day of Silence” I don’t know which one to have an orgasm over first! Oh my goodness!
It’s really sad that TechCrunch has nothing to talk about anymore.
How does ChipIn handle the transaction fees? Wouldn’t the fees from the credit card companies defeat this effort?
Shambhu,
1. Create Facebook application for collecting money
2. Don’t charge any fees
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
Just like every other startup with no business plan.
yeah I vote for a new techcrunch rule /
– If the company isnt affecting 1 out of every 10 Techcrunch users –
– no review …..
– If the company hasnt released a working anything ( IE POWERSET)
NO FREAKIN REVIEW!!
thanks, RB
Holly smoke, BlackBaud’s market cap is $1B dollar?!!!
Looks like there are many of these fund raising widgets out there, barrier of entry is pretty low. Change.org, for example, has a pretty vibrant community. With all these choices, it will be hard for ChipIn to charge.
One differentiator for ChipIn is that Chipin donor’s money goes directly into the recipient’s account, much like PayPal’s Donate Now button. This makes donation easy, but it also makes Chipin nothing but an eyecandy tool. If Chipin wants to make money, it has to turn into a middleman in order to tag on a service fee. But then it will need to deal with fraud (albeit low in the charity world) and fund disbursement. Also any new comer can come in and cut it at its knee. Without a community like Change.org, ChipIn remains to be a tool and may not worth much more than the $1M seed money it has raised.