by Scott McAndrew on April 5, 2009
Both Venture Beat and Mashable had coverage last week of a Facebook feature currently being tested called “credits.” I thought “credits” was a April Fool’s Day joke that just wasn’t all that amusing. Apparently, it wasn’t.
Here’s an excerpt from the Venture Beat coverage that explains how it works:
When you leave a comment on an item, you’ll see a field where you can enter the number of credits you want to give the person who created the item. You’ll also see the number of credits you have available to give — you can choose to give up to the number of credits you possess. You can only get credits by buying them in Facebook’s virtual gifts store — $1 for 100 credits — or by receiving them (or by getting some free when you start using credits, although Facebook is testing how many to make available that way).
Once you’ve left a comment with credits, you’ll see the credits appear next to the comment, following the feature’s green plus symbol icon. There’s no other way to create credits at this time. This means people need to think twice before giving their credits away.
“No brainer” or “no brain”?
For Facebook, it’s a no-brainer. Getting users to exchange real cash for virtual compliments doesn’t have a downside. And, they’re the coolest social networking site on the block. They’ve proven that they are adept at rolling out ideas then, if they tank (or worse, aggravate people), they can backpedal without too much damage.
For Facebook users? My guess is that the average Facebook user’s response is “thanks, but no thanks.” The idea is, well, clunky. While there’s likely far more behind this than what’s being exposed at this point, in response to one’s status giving someone a quick text retort or clicking a ‘like’ link feels natural. Giving them ‘money’ they can spend on tchotchke or re-credit to someone else’s clever status does not.
What do you think? How will Facebook users respond?
Photo by chrispulo
by Scott McAndrew on April 11, 2007
At the SXSW Conference, one of the sessions I attended was a panel discussion called Turning Projects Into Revenue Generating Businesses. There were representatives from various online web sites who had tried various ways of making money with their web sites. A good amount of the chatter was to be expected:
- If you think you’re going to get rich off of Google AdSense ads, good luck—you’re going to need a hell of a lot of traffic (and most likely a web site about asbestos lawsuits) for that to pan out. By the way, if you see any Google Ads on my web site, feel free to click on them.
- Selling and managing your own advertising space is another option. It sounds kind of cool—you’re in the driver’s seat of your own advertising outlet. It stops being cool and exposes itself as work when you realize you must serve as the (a) marketer, (b) sales person, (c) bill collector, (d) accountant, and (e) customer service extension of this cool new facet of your web site.
And of course there were the usual suspects (you can sell your own merchandise, you can sell others’ merchandise, etc.). And then… the not so to-be-expected topic…
Virtual Gifting
Virtual gifting is exactly what it sounds like: One web site member sends a virtual gift to another web site member. The gifts are virtual. The price to purchase them, however, is not. In the U.S. market the runaway sophomoric hit turned dating site Am I Hot or Not is widely credited for bringing virtual gifting to the table. Other popular web destinations including Facebook, Dogster (and Catster) are also offering virtual gifts.
Send a Virtual What?
- On the “Am I Hot or Not” site, the virtual gifts are flowers. The prices aren’t that different than the real variety.
- On Dogster and Catster, there are free virtual gifts that are awarded to members to hand out, but one can also purchase ‘Zealies‘ (Dogster and Catster’s currency) which can be used to send virtual rosettes to their favorite pets (Dogster and Catster are social networking sites for dogs and cats—er, I mean, dog and cats’ owners).
- Facebook, who implemented virtual gifting this year, allows users to send various virtual gifts to one another.
Is This a Viable Way to Make Money?
I would have thought not. How many people would send someone virtual flowers? According the the panel, quite a few. Ok, but how many people would buy and send virtual kitty chachki from their cat to another? There can’t be volume there-or could there be? In our virtual worlds, we have virtual places and virtual identities; maybe virtual ways of expressing ourselves isn’t that far fetched after all.
