Facebook doing away with annoying requests to send friends gift cards

facebook discontinue gift service
No, we don't think our friend would want this for her birthday.

Facebook is getting out of the business of gift card peddling.

You will no longer be prompted with a wrapped-present icon to send your friends a Starbucks (SBUX) or Target (PBCFX) gift card on their birthdays -- Facebook's (FB) Gifts service is set to be discontinued.

Launched in September 2012, Gifts will no longer be available as of August 12, according to a Re/code report. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Gifts app was already scaled down from allowing users to purchase and send tangible presents, to exclusively e-gift cards activated by digital codes.

Related: Facebook says: If you Like it, Buy it

Facebook is all grown up
Facebook is all grown up

The move seems to be in line with a new e-commerce strategy for the social networking giant. The Gifts news comes just days after the company revealed its new "Buy" button -- an embeddable feature similar to the "Like" button that allows users to make purchases from a selection of small businesses partnered with Facebook.

Facebook's recently revealed second quarter results showed the company's major growth in mobile. The social network's experimentation with e-commerce ventures may present another opportunity for engagement with smartphone users -- both vendors and shoppers.

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