Few months ago, Facebook has collaborated with a Malaysia-based online payments company-MOL Global to sell Facebook Credits online as well as physical outlets in several countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and so on (Hefflinger M, 2010). To recall, Facebook Credits are the official currency made available for the Facebook users to purchase virtual goods on games and applications which costs $1 for 10 Facebook Credits (Entreprecurious.com). Facebook Credits can be bought by using different methods for instance, credit card, PayPal, and even mobile phone.
According to theduffyagency.com (2010), other than buying virtual goods by using Facebook Credits, they also can be used as a sales channel as below:
- Immediate purchase
- Users tend to buy either virtual or real items once they have sufficient Facebook Credits while they are using the Facebook applications. The consumers will be directed to more than one game or application and encouraged to buy more just within a click. This increases the possibility for consumers to make immediate purchase.
- Through this Facebook wide social network, it serves as a global platform for businesses. By using Facebook Credits and supported by PayPal, it provides an opportunity for seller to promote and sell goods and services to consumers all around the world.
In our opinion, we think that Facebook Credits would be a virtual currency that enables us to purchase virtual and real goods in the future. It will be efficient and convenient for the consumers as it does not limited to games and application, but also on shopping goods like clothes, books, hand phones, accessories, and some home appliances. Will you consider using Facebook Credits now and in the future? Or do you have any opinion about it? Please feel free to share with us...
References:
Hefflinger, M 2010, Facebook teams with MOL to sell Facebook Credits in Asia, Digital Media Wire, viewed on 28 September 2010, http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/07/08/facebook-teams-mol-sell-facebook-credits-asia
Facebook Credits and the future of micro-transactions 2009, Entreprecurious, viewed 27 September 2010, http://entreprecurious.com/2009/09/19/facebook-credits-and-the-future-of-micro-transactions/
Facebook Credits could be our new universal currency 2010, The Duffy Agency, viewed 27 September 2010, http://blog.theduffyagency.com/methodical_madness/2010/07/facebook-credits-may-be-our-new-universal-currency.html
Actually , I don’t think buying facebook credit is a good idea because no point in buying it those credits from Facebook and spend it in applications that can be played freely. Even without those credit , I still can played the game without problem although slower.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, people buy virtual currency in facebook mainly to played certain application such as FarmVille, mafia wars, mind jolt game, texas holdem poker, and etc. if those application suddenly disappear then what is the purpose of those facebook credit. From the website , I found out that Facebook is having problem with its biggest gaming partner Zynga because Facebook takes a massive fee – 30% and it could potentially make Zynga pull out from facebook. If that happen then what should user of the application do with the facebook credit . can we ever refund those credit back to money? From what I see ,there are no refund.
It make my head spine just to look at Facebook Credits problem such as Missing Credits Balance, paying method , exchange rate and etc. not to mention the Privacy and Security issues also become one of the concern because will others able to hack into my account and use up my facebook credit.
Besides that, I found out there are many Facebook Credits Hack stuff and software in the web. It make me wonder what is the point of purchasing those credit when others get it for free . I am not very confident about it so I think it would take time for me wonder worthy or not to purchase facebook credit? maybe in the future I am will buy it but not now.
reference :
facebooks game, digitalnature, viewed in 2 October 2010
http://www.facebooksgames.net/
Christopher Mack 2010,Top 25 Facebook Games for February, 2010,Inside Network, Inc. viewed in 2 October 2010
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/06/21/as-facebook-continues-testing-credits-developers-worry-over-costs/
Michael Arrington 2010, Zynga Gunning Up (And Lawyering Up) For War Against Facebook With Zynga Live, TechCrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/07/zynga-gunning-up-and-lawyering-up-for-war-against-facebook-with-zynga-live/
facebook games cheats and hacks, hacktivate.com , viewed in 2 October 2010
http://www.hacktivate.com/facebook-games-cheats-and-hacks
I will not consider using Facebook Credit. I will worry about safety of the Facebook Credit. As we know, PayPal is famous third party. I believe that the PayPal is safe when purchasing the Facebook Credit. After that, the facebook Credit is keep in our facebook personal account. It is safe with facebook account? I don’t think so.
ReplyDeleteThe reason of adopt the Facebook Credit is that Facebook would like to provide common payment system. It helps to reduce the friction for people making payments between different games company and also online store.
As facebook earn 30% of revenue from the facebook credit as you stated, it seen like facebook would like to earn more revenue since the facebook is popular around the world. Is the facebook have do some prevention or security about the facebook credit fraud?
There have also rumors say that facebook wants to make the only virtual money (Facebook Credit) available on the site. Maybe this will happen in the future.
Lastly, I still have doubt about the safety with the facebook credit. I prefer buying virtual money from game company rather than using Facebook Credit.
Reference
Eric Eldon 2010, Inside Facebook, Facebook Credits Now the First Payment Option in FarmVille, Facebook’s Biggest App, viewed 10 October 2010, http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/03/10/facebook-credits-now-the-first-payment-option-in-farmville-facebooks-biggest-app/
In relation to the Facebook credit, I would like to discuss further about it.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the author of an article named “Facebook consolidates its virtual currency with Facebook Credits”, Facebook had made an announcement about the expansion of the Facebook Credits program which is the social network’s official virtual currency during their f8 conference on 21 April 2010.
Based on the author, the expansion of the Credit program could have a huge impact on the revenue generated by Facebook application. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook announced that Facebook is testing out the credits with over 100 applications, and it will soon role out the whole networks during the conference.
Besides that, users are currently able to purchase Facebook credits with credit cards, special offers, mobile phones and paypal. However, according to Liu which is the product marketing manager for Credits, Facebook plans to append 100 or 200 local payment options across the worldwide. Other than that, they also introduced the App2user Credits program which designed to enable users to convert reward points into Facebook credits without paying with credit cards.
“With around 800 million unique social gaming experiences on Facebook every month, it clearly has a potential for phenomenal growth in virtual currency either developers and for Facebook” says Liu.
Reference:
Facebook consolidates its virtual currency with Facebook Credits, viewed 6 October 2010,
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_consolidates_its_virtual_currency_with_facebook_credits.php