About Face

Zynga drops its plans to use other virtual currency providers on Facebook and goes all in with Facebook Credits. Articles and analysis by:

WebProNews ” Another possibility is that Facebook will just force all of the holdouts to adapt at some point, too, since most of the bigger players have already agreed not to put up a fight.”

Inside Social Games ” Facebook says it expects that over time Credits will be the main way that applications and people transact on Facebook Platform, although it hasn’t officially stated that Credits will be mandated.”

TechCrunch “Don’t expect to see Facebook Credits being rolled out in Zynga’s games on other platforms like Yahoo. Zynga and Facebook have found détente for now, but I don’t see Zynga processing a single dollar through Facebook that they don’t have to.”

Bloomberg “The move signals Facebook’s tightening grip on the virtual- goods market, which could generate $1.6 billion in the U.S. this year, according to the research firm Inside Network.”

Target rolls out Facebook Credits gift cards

Mega-retailer Target is now offering Facebook Credits gift cards in their stores. This move could greatly increase the virtual currency purchase volume by social gamers. Articles and analysis from:

Mashable ” Facebook Credits gift cards package the virtual currency in consumer-friendly entities, which Facebook hopes will appeal to holiday shoppers.”

MarketWatch – Press Release

GigaOM ” The points can be used to buy virtual goods on Facebook in a variety of applications and games. Offering such deals is a way for the social network to connect its online offerings with people’s real-world lives and potentially expand its user base.”

Fox News ” Facebook Credits are a form of virtual currency for use at the social-networking site, most notably in the wildly popular games from developer Zygna.”

Barron’s ” Target says the cards will be “an ideal gift this holiday season for those who enjoy playing social games on Facebook.”

CNET ” In an e-mailed statement, Facebook confirmed that it would, in fact, be offering its Credits gift cards at other retail stores.”

What will Google’s Social Network look like?

Google has recently been on an acquisition tear, picking up social games/apps developer Slide and virtual currency developer Jambool. The goal is to stop Facebook from taking over the Internet. Other investments include Social Gaming giant Zynga and their venture arm grabbed a slice of ngmoco. The big question now is, what the hell are they up to?

Articles and analysis from:

Inside Facebook ” We believe that Levchin and his team will craft the rules of the platform to be extremely clear, in some places copying the best practices that Facebook’s platform has evolved to, and in other places making the platform work differently”

eWeek ” The search engine clearly feels, as Facebook and MySpace did before it, that people want to use social widgets and play games to enhance their social network experience.”

Financial Times ” Now, rather than try to build a social platform from scratch, Google looks to be building a destination for social games and applications, and hoping the social network will coalesce around it.”

TMCnet ” The interesting thing is that consumers today are finicky enough to try a new platform if it presents something new and exciting and what they perceive to be “better” than what they already have.”

EXTRA: eWeek reports on Google’s discussions to partner with PayPal to provide micro-transactions support in the Android application market.

EXTRA, EXTRA: TechCrunch reports that Google will be acquiring Like.com. Additional analysis from WebProNews

Hmmm, Like.com would add much dimension to Google’s “social search” capabilities. This just gets more and more interesting.

Brands on Social Networks

eMarketer reports that 33% of consumers on Facebook have become fans of brands on the network.  From the article:

” Coupons remain a leading driver of brand interactions in social networks. Learning about sales and new products is also a strong motivator for people to interact with companies in social media.”

A separate study by Performics indicated that 50% of Facebook users click on a Facebook ad to “Like” a brand. Also from the Press Release:

” The study of 3,000 U.S. social network users tackled not only general behaviors and platform preferences for social sites; it delved deeper into how social sites affect family and friend relationships and consumer attitudes towards brands and products”