Alex Webb, Columnist

Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency Needs More Friends

Advertisers don’t look convinced by the social network’s plans for a stablecoin.

June 18, 2019 at 10:52 AM UTC

Alex Webb is a correspondent for Bloomberg Quicktake. He previously covered the technology, telecoms and media industries in London, San Francisco and Munich.

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Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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Facebook Inc.’s planned cryptocurrency is going to need more friends to work.

On Tuesday, the social media giant announced it had signed up 27 partners to develop and administer Libra, a digital medium of exchange for use on its apps and beyond. Uber Technologies Inc., Spotify Inc., Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are all taking part – but there’s a notable absence of banks, large retailers and consumer goods companies, whose massive marketing budgets are the staple of ad agencies worldwide.