B2B e-commerce platform Shopify has become the latest business to join Facebook’s Libra Association, joining the likes of Tagomi which also became a member of the organisation in 2020.
According to the announcement, which was published on the official Shopify blog, the company believes that joining the association falls in line with various components of the company’s mission and core values, such as to help.
“make commerce better in parts of the world where money and banking could be far better… [and this is] not the only step we’ll be taking to be a part of the solution to this global problem.”
Shopify (announcement)
Shopify calls itself an “all-in-one” eCommerce platform targeting, primarily, SMEs and sole traders and providing an intuitive solution “to start, run, and grow a business” online. It claims to power “over 1 million businesses worldwide”.
It also offers a ‘Shopify Plus’ service targeting more ambitious projects and enterprise users, which boasts over 7,000 brands selling in 175 countries.
The standard range of Shopify products and services attempt to enable:
“people at all skill levels (technically, or business-wise) to easily open their own store… reducing the barriers to business ownership to make commerce better for everyone”
Shopify (Official Website)
An official statement revealed that Shopify had enjoyed increased sales for the period of Q4 2019. Conversely, perhaps coincidentally, third party publications have noted that there has been a slump in Shopify’s public stock’s trading value since the announcement.
On February 28, 2020 the company decided that (like many corporate events, including those in the cryptocurrency sector) it would be cancelling the “in-person portion” of its Toronto-hosted ‘Shopify Unite’ conference for partners and developers using its platform.
Health concerns were cited, leading many to believe that the Coronavirus epidemic is to blame.
“As a member of the Libra Association, we will work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere…
“We’re excited to be part of the Libra Association and look forward to how the project may improve commerce everywhere.”
Shopify (official announcement)
Libra Association is a consortium of companies working together towards the anticipated ‘Libra’ stablecoin and associated ‘Calibra’ distributed computer network infrastructure, which the forthcoming token will exist upon.
The association suffered a major setback in late 2019 when, in the midst of a string of U.S. Senate hearings involving Facebook (represented by senior staff members, including founder Mark Zuckerberg), there was a mass exodus of founding members.
PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Mercado Pago, eBay, Stripe and Booking Holdings all left the Libra Association last year. Vodafone was the most recent founding member to leave, in February 2020.
“Our mission has always been to support the entrepreneurial journey of the more than one million merchants on our platform.
“That means advocating for transparent fees and easy access to capital, and ensuring the security and privacy of our merchants’ customer data. We want to create an infrastructure that empowers more entrepreneurs around the world.”
Shopify (official announcement)
