Remember postcards? How about stamps? Facebook does, and its mulling over getting users to buy into the antiquated idea of sending real friends real notes on real paper through the real mail. Big Face is working with a small group of users, giving them the option to turn their pictures into postcards and mail them off to their friends. It says pricing is still being worked out, although the app Postagram does a similar function with Instagram pics for $0.99 a pop.
The few users who are in the feature’s tester group will see a “Mail Postcard” button at the bottom of photos they’re viewing. Clicking it opens a screen to enter the friend’s address and message. Users can ask their friend or check their profile for their mailing address if they don’t know it. For now you can only mail your own private photos to friends, or mail friends their own photos that you can see. It doesn’t work for public photos or photos from Pages.
Currently postcard stamps range from $0.32 for small to $0.45 for large-sized, so minus the cost for the cards themselves this could actually be a money-maker for a company that’s in desperate need of just such a thing.
And, if this comes to fruition and catches on, think about what a boon it could be for the postal service, which has Facebook beat in the category of money problems. Yesterday the post office reported losses of $57 million per day in the last quarter and, by most accounts, is on the brink of bankruptcy. Now, what if all those birthday greetings that show up on everybody’s Facebook page were shipped off through the mail. I can imagine some sore feet and mounting chiropractic bills for mail carriers, but a godsend for the USPS.
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