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Mertado发布新款插件,开发商可在社交游戏进行零售经营

发布时间:2010-10-27 15:36:17 Tags:,

今年4月新发布的社交购物网站Mertado计划向各社交游戏开发商提供一种新的盈利方式,即在游戏中植入虚拟店面。今天,该新兴公司发布了一款可直接植入Facebook应用的新款插件,该插件同时支持其他发行网站中置入虚拟店面。

Mertado是类似Groupon的零售商店,每天贩售几款打折商品,如数码相框、大手提袋等电视购物常见商品。现在,该项服务在Facebook应用或与Facebook链接的网站都有提供,而Mertado公司也希望通过该插件提高分布。

一旦开发商在应用中融入该款插件,Mertado将开展某些活动促进玩家购物,譬如玩家在Mertado购物能收到“免费”的虚拟货币奖励等。另外,Mertado功能还支持Facebook Credits等各种虚拟货币。

Facebook Purchase

Facebook Purchase

当用户在游戏中点击Mertado店面后,用户从选择商品到信用卡支付等一系列购物流程都可以直接在插件上完成,无需点击到其他页面。这项技术对希望玩家沉浸在游戏中的开发商无疑是个福音。同时,为了吸引玩家的兴趣,Mertado网站还提供类似购物频道的商品介绍视频——事实上,Mertado公司为此聘请了一位资深的购物频道人员制作这类视频。

该款嵌入式插件还可用于其他发行网站。Mertado并不是首家开发这类插件的公司。2007年PayPal曾发布一款购物插件,而其他许多小型新公司也曾经有这方面尝试。但Mertado认为这款插件并不仅仅是促销商品,而是囊括了整个执行订单的流程。

那么该款插件是否能行之有效呢?我认为答案在于Mertado经营的产品质量。提供免费虚拟货币一方面可以激发用户使用Mertado插件,另一方面为正在忧郁购买Mertado商品的人提供动力。但如果客户对Mertado提供的商品并不感兴趣,我不认为提供Facebook Credits的方法足以吸引买家。(本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译)

Mertado, a social shopping site that launched in April, wants to give social game developers a new way to make money: by incorporating a virtual storefront into their games. Today the startup is launching a new widget that developers on Facebook can integrate directly into their apps, and it’s also offering support for embedding the storefront on publisher sites across the web.

Mertado is a bit like a Groupon for retail goods — every day it presents you with a handful of items available at a discount price, with deals on things like digital picture frames, tote bags, and those As-Seen-On-TV gadgets that you’d never think of buying on your own but are actually pretty useful. The service has been available via a Facebook application and a Facebook Connect-enabled website (the company says its users are split around half and half between the two) and now it’s looking to increase distribution with the new widget.

Once a developer has integrated the widget, Mertado entices gamers to go shopping using a tried and true technique: by offering them ‘free’ virtual credits whenever they purchase something through Mertado. Mertado features support for Facebook Credits (it says it’s the first retailer on Facebook with Credits support), and it can also work with alternative virtual currencies.

When a user activates the Mertado storefront, they’ll see a widget overlaid on top of the game they’re playing. The whole shopping process, from selecting an item to checking out with a credit card, is done from this widget, so the user never gets kicked off to another page (which is good news for developers, who want them to stay engaged with their game). To help get the gamer interested, there’s a very QVCish video describing the product Mertado is currently selling — in fact, the company actually hired someone with QVC experience to do the audio for these, which is a nice touch.

The embedded shopping widget will also work on publisher sites. Mertado isn’t the first to offer something like this (PayPal launched a shopping widget in 2007, and there have been a handful of similar startups). But Mertado says that it’s fairly unique because it isn’t simply promoting goods that are sold through another party — it manages the entire process, including fulfilling orders.

So will this be effective? I think the answer will largely revolve around how good the products Mertado promotes are, and how well it can target them. Offers of free credits may be enough to get users interested enough to activate the Mertado widget, and it could also push them over the edge if they’re considering buying the latest gadget Mertado is hawking. But if the consumer doesn’t have much interest in the product to begin with, I don’t think promises of Facebook Credits will be enough to get them to make a purchase. (Source:TechCrunch)


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