PayPal Head Jumps Ship for Facebook

The president of eBay subsidiary PayPal is leaving for Facebook, where he will oversee the social network’s messaging products.

David Marcus will exit PayPal on June 27 and then lead Facebook’s increasingly popular Messenger app.

The move could be a sign that Facebook is serious about finding a monetization strategy for messaging. Right now, Messenger has 200 million monthly active users who send 12 billion messages daily, but the app is free and doesn’t serve ads. Competing apps like WhatsApp—which Facebook bought for $19 billion earlier this year—and Line make money by charging a subscription fee or selling extra features, such as stickers.

“We’re excited by the potential to continue developing great new messaging experiences that better serve the Facebook community and reach even more people, and David will be leading these efforts,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the hire.

The company plans to continue operating Messenger and WhatsApp independently.