如果将Facebook比喻成一个国家，那么它将是全球第三大国，也正因此，Facebook正试着开发自己的货币——Facebook Credits。

目前，Facebook Credits可在Facebook平台近200款应用上购买虚拟商品，譬如可以在免费的FarmVille游戏中购买特殊的作物种子或加速的拖拉机等道具。

与此同时，Facebook Credits也开始进军现实社会。上周，西夫韦商店也加入了Target, 百思买和沃尔玛等公司之列开始销售Facebook Credit礼品卡，及时为来临的购物季节提供一种新的礼品之选。

Facebook Currency

Palo Alto公司的产品营销经理Deborah Liu表示希望Facebook Credits成为Facebook网站的虚拟货币。

对此，分析家指出，Facebook Credits有潜力跨应用，跨国境成为国际化的网络货币，而其每笔交易30%的抽成毋庸置疑可以为Facebook社交网站带去巨额收入。其中，投资研究公司Think Equity的分析师Atul Bagga指出，Credits将来还以应用于新闻或视频等数字商品的营销中。他认为目前Facebook Credits才刚刚起步，将来一定可以发展得更好。

胜利的可能

的确，网络社交系统也是昨天开始的Web 2.0峰会的一个重要议题。今年初，企业家兼技术记者John Battelle在其博文中写道的“争取网络经济命脉之战”成为了本次会议的主要议题。其中，拥有近5亿活跃用户的社交网站Faceook显然是这场战斗的胜者。Forrester Research的资深分析师Augie Ray提出，“随着Facebook Credits用处的不断扩大，Facebook将发展成自己的经济。”

Facebook公司并没有公布究竟有多少成员在使用Facebook Credits。本月初，Wedbush Securities预计Facebook今年销售虚拟商品的营收将达到10亿美元，而这一数值在2011年将上升至20亿美元。

现在，来自75家开发公司的200多款游戏正在使用Facebook Credits，其中有22款游戏名列社交游戏前25名之中。

11月2日，Facebook与位于红木城的视频游戏巨头公司Electronic Arts签下了5年合约，此后Facebook Credits将成为Pet Society, Restaurant City和FIFA Superstars等社交游戏的专用支付方式。而此前，Facebook也和旧金山社交游戏巨头公司Zynga签订了类似合约。另外Family Tree和Hallmark Social Calendar等非游戏应用，Stand Up to Cancer慈善机构和Nothing But Nets等机构也签约使用Facebook Credits。

另外由于通过Facebook Connect可以将Facebook网站中的成员信息提取到其他网站中，因此Facebook Credits的支付系统将变得格外重要。

便捷化

事实上，使用Facebook Credits虚拟货币交易系统与现实中我们使用BART交易卡十分相似。Facebook用户可以使用信用卡，PayPal账号或手机账户购买一定金额的Facebook Credits，最低金额1.5美元可以购买15 Credits。同时，Facebook Credits可以接受美元，欧元和日元15种等不同货币。

和根据距离收取费用的BART卡类似，Facebook Credtis会根据虚拟商品的价值扣款，每一件虚拟道具在现实生活中仅需几美分。这一理念与当初Apple公司销售99美分iTune音乐下载类似。

Trial Pay的首席执行官提出，“Apple如何吸引用户付款？简捷是关键。”的确，Facebook公司的Liu也指出开发无障碍的微支付系统是关键。这样一来，游戏开发商可以放心地加入Facebook Credits的使用，而不用自己耗费心力开发支付系统。

“社交游戏是虚拟货币最先进入的领域，但在将来Facebook Credits将遍布各种行业。”Liu说。

潜在市场

Bagga指出，目前Facebook Credits虽然还不能进行购买机票等大额购票。但各大新闻网站经销商们可以使用Facebook Credits让读者付费购买部分重要新闻或者特殊视频。“很多产业也和音乐一样可以激发社交网络现象。”

然而，由于Facebook社交网站的初衷是聚集用户进行个人信息分享，因此Facebook上的交易活动可能会涉及用户的隐私问题，Facebook Credits必须在这方面进行一些模糊化处理。Ray提出，随着Facebook在人们购物和交流活动中占有越来越重要的作用，政府也必须时刻关注Facebook的发展变化。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world, so it figures that the social networking giant is trying to develop its own currency – Facebook Credits.

Already, those credits can buy virtual goods from more than 200 applications on the Facebook platform, like special crop seeds or enhanced tractors in the otherwise free-to-play social game FarmVille.

But credits have moved into the physical world as well. Last week, Safeway Stores joined Target, Best Buy and Walmart in selling Facebook Credit gift cards, just in time for them to become a stocking stuffer for the onrushing holiday shopping season.

“We want Facebook Credits to be the virtual currency on Facebook,” said product marketing manager Deborah Liu for the Palo Alto firm.

Analysts say Facebook Credits also have the potential to become a universal online currency that crosses both applications and country borders, not to mention a multibillion-dollar revenue source for Facebook, which takes a 30 percent cut of each transaction.

Credits, for example, could be the future currency used by publishers of digital content like news and video, said analyst Atul Bagga of the investment research firm Think Equity LLC.

For now, “Facebook is only taking baby steps,” Bagga said. “But you can see that Facebook Credits can go far.”
Positioned to win

Indeed, online payment systems are a key component of the main theme for the Web 2.0 Summit that begins today at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

The convention will focus on “a battle to gain the upper hand in crucial ‘points of control’ across the Internet Economy,” entrepreneur and tech journalist John Battelle wrote earlier this year in a blog post setting up the theme for this year’s conference.

And with more than 500 million active members, Facebook is already positioned to become a winner in that battle.

“As Facebook Credits increases in usage, Facebook will begin to look and feel like its own economy,” said Augie Ray, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

The privately held Facebook isn’t disclosing how many of its members now use Facebook Credits, which grew out of a Gift Shop feature that closed Aug. 1.

Earlier this month, Wedbush Securities projected Facebook will generate more than $1 billion in sales from virtual goods this year, and approach $2 billion next year.

Currently, there are more than 200 games and applications from 75 developers that accept Facebook Credits for those virtual goods, including 22 of the 25 most popular social games.

On Nov. 2, Facebook signed a five-year deal with Redwood City video game giant Electronic Arts to use Facebook Credits as its exclusive payment method for its social games, such as Pet Society, Restaurant City and FIFA Superstars.

That followed a similar deal earlier this year with San Francisco’s Zynga Game Network Inc., maker of popular social games like FarmVille.

But there are non-game apps, such as Family Tree and Hallmark Social Calendar, that also accept Facebook Credits for virtual gifts such as digital birthday cards. And charitable organizations like Stand Up to Cancer and the anti-malaria Nothing But Nets have accepted Facebook Credits donations.

The payment system could become especially important since Facebook is also pushing its Connect program to directly bridge the social network’s members with millions of other websites.
Making it easy

The system works in a way that’s similar to real-world transactions such as using a BART transit card.

Facebook members use a regular credit card, PayPal account or mobile phone account to buy a certain value of Facebook Credits, starting with 15 credits for $1.50. Facebook Credits accepts payments using 15 currencies, including dollars, euros and yen.

Like BART cards, which deduct fares based on the distance of travel on the system, a Facebook Credits account is charged for the value of a virtual item that in real currency might cost only a few cents each.

It’s the basic concept used by Apple Inc. to sell 99-cent songs on iTunes at a time when downloading songs for free was all the rage, said Alex Rampell, chief executive officer of Trial Pay Inc.

“How did Apple get everybody to pay? They just made it very easy,” said Rampell, whose Mountain View company offers an advertising system that entices social game players to try a real product like pizza or cosmetics in exchange for Facebook Credits.

Indeed, Facebook’s Liu said the company sees a “sweet spot” for making a frictionless micro-payment system. The company is slowly expanding its list of developers who can “just plug into Facebook Credits” and not have to worry about creating their own payment system, she said.

Social gaming is just the first industry to be affected, “but we think a number of verticals will break through,” Liu said.
Potential markets

Airline tickets or other big-ticket purchases may not be practical for Facebook Credits. But news site publishers, for example, could use Facebook Credits to get readers to buy access to an important story or a special video, Bagga said.

“And music is a very social phenomenon,” he said. “There are so many industries that can have disruptions due to the social networking phenomenon.”

Facebook, however, is based on the proposition that members make the network work by sharing their personal information, so it has also sparked numerous controversies over privacy. Facebook Credits might bring even more scrutiny.

“As Facebook becomes a bigger part of the user’s shopping and purchasing activities as well as an even greater part of their communications activities, there’s going to be a greater focus on the part of government as to what Facebook is doing,” Ray said. （Source：sfgate）