Facebook Gifts

Amazon without all the fulfillment overhead and all the event driven and social context. First pass was virtual gifts right? This is physical. Interesting, but needs some major fortitude.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#5

Post by k-mcgrady » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:11 PM UTC

A much better idea than the original 'virtual gifts'. I could really see this taking off although it will take some time to reach users around the world. Maybe they will partner with Amazon for distribution. I wonder how this would affect Facebook's bottom line if a large percentage of their users started taking advantage of it. Combined with the birthday notifications everyone is used to it could generate significant revenue.

e.g. What is you clicked a birthday notification and instead of just an option to post to the persons wall you could send a gift? Lots of opportunity here for Facebook to integrate this.

Edit: just watched the video and they are integrating with birthdays.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#6

Post by LaGrange » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

Oooh, now that's the way to get real names + addresses out of people. Neat. It also involves social pressure -- now not giving away your address will mean rejecting a gift.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#7

Post by dfriedmn » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

3am_hackernews wrote: post #3

Is this the result of the Karma acquisition [1]? [1] http://blog.getkarma.com/post/23305446792/karma-is-moving-to...

Signs certainly point to yes.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#8

Post by waterlesscloud » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

All depends on the quality of the gifts. If they're chintzy, good luck. But if it's quality stuff, cool. It's got to be of a higher level than Zynga was for apps.

Facebook would be served best by controlling gift quality with an iron fist. I'm a little skeptical they'll do that, but maybe.

This is very cool, though "Friends ... can swap for a different size, flavor or style before the gift ships."

Still. Quality. Quality. Quality.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#9

Post by frisco » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:13 PM UTC

This seems like the entirely wrong thing to optimize. There are so many other opportunities for Facebook to monetize:

  - group buying around deals, or group buying in general
  - "Pay by Facebook" Facebook Connect based payment system
  - Facebook Presence based loyalty programs

among many other easier things than gifts. Gifting does not seem like low hanging fruit.

Re: Facebook Gifts

#10

Post by veb » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:15 PM UTC

Does this mean I can buy my friends a beer? Because that'll be better than buying them a ... cupcake.