David Marcus, the head of eBays PayPal unit, is to step down this month and join Facebook to run its messaging products, the companies have announced. As the vice president of messaging products, a newly created role at Facebook, Marcus will be responsible for the Messenger service within the social network as well as the free Messenger app, although not WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $19bn (£11.3bn) in February.

In a public Facebook post, Marcus said “after much deliberation, I decided now is the right time for me to move on to something that is closer to what I love to do every day,” citing PayPals strong position and leadership team. He credited Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with bringing him to the company, saying “Marks enthusiasm, and the unparalleled reach and consumer engagement of the Facebook platform ultimately won me over.”

As head of PayPal, Marcus has dramatically reinvigorated the company and overseen it moving more aggressively into the world of physical retail by developing a mobile wallet for consumers and point-of-sale systems for retailers. Many industry experts speculate that he is being brought over to Facebook to introduce an eCommerce element to its structure.

Messaging services are increasingly incorporating transaction capabilities. Last year, Google introduced a feature on Gmail enabling users to transfer money to each other, while WeChat, the mobile messaging service owned by Tencent Holdings, recently enabled users to book taxis through the service.