Facebook is on track to implement the use of Credits, the equivalent of Linden Dollars. This virtual currency is a course totally arbitrary: 10 cents Credit, which puts money in for facebook members between the Mexican peso and the Chinese yuan. Already announced last year, The virtual currency of Facebook is being tested in the social network partners.
The new currency – which is bought with real dollars – is to buy virtual items in games for example. And that’s just some game developers dedicated to the social network that rise because the new money would come with fairly high rates, and introduce a new form of competition for developers that integrate their own system of virtual payment.
Because for every credit a merchant buys, Facebook recovers 30%. Thirty cents for every dollar, according to the calculation made by Robert Van Gool, founder of a development agency in San Francisco called Gonzo Games. According to the CEO of Gonzo Games, the new system introduced by Facebook and its virtual currency would have to abandon plans to sell toilets for a virtual car racing game. We imagine the scandal in high places, and Robert Van Gool considering neither more nor less porting his game to another platform.
Except that in Facebook, "I do not see the problem, since according to Deborah Liu, a manager of the initiative Credits, the 30% commission is consistent with industry standards". This is also the rate applied by Apple on the sale of virtual objects within applications on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
Facebook still has time to reverse, since Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has not yet determined whether its new currency, tested by hundreds of partners at present, would replace all other means of payment to the site. Although demand is still low for Facebook to virtual objects, the U.S. market across all sites is currently estimated at 1.6 billion dollars, which pushes the social network to accelerate the establishment of a payment solution enabling it monetization. This market, generated partly by social networks, has more than doubled in one year. Zynga Games, who is the publisher of the most popular game from Facebook, Farmville, is currently testing the system of Credits, but declined comment.
