Isn't the Secret Service going to have a problem with this? I thought making your own currency was a huge no-no, and if it gets too popular they are going to have a hell of a time passing it off as something else to the government.
Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
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Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#12If they start allowing the sale of non-digital goods on Facebook, they had better drop the 30% cut. That'll never fly with retailers, no matter how much exposure their Page gets them. Current payment processors take about $0.10 per transaction.
If they start allowing the sale of non-digital goods on Facebook, they had better drop the 30% cut
Agreed, 30% is a ludicrous amount for anything outside of Facebook. Now, if they could offer comparable rates to PayPal, I for one would sign up overnight. Is it that crazy to think that they could topple PayPal's current monopoly on low-end[0] payments?
[0] I couldn't think of a better way to describe it, but if you aren't based in the USA, UK, Australia etc, there aren't a lot of options for getting your first buck for your web app etc.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#13Isn't the Secret Service going to have a problem with this? I thought making your own currency was a huge no-no, and if it gets too popular they are going to have a hell of a time passing it off as something else to the government.
Its not going to be an issue, I think. I mean, Microsoft is already doing something very similar with Microsoft Points on XBox Live.
EDIT: Actually, all the major game consoles use "credits" rather than actual dollars for their online transactions. If they can do it for their platforms, Facebook can do something similar for its own platform.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#14Isn't the Secret Service going to have a problem with this? I thought making your own currency was a huge no-no, and if it gets too popular they are going to have a hell of a time passing it off as something else to the government.
"You may not accept Credits as payment for a currency or other stored value item that can be used outside of the application."
"You will not (and you will not enable or allow any third party to) sell Credits to, or trade or otherwise exchange Credits with, any third party."
In short, Facebook Credits cannot be a commodity / currency. They're closer to gift cards, storing value only.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#15Right now the vast majority of Credits are spent on gaming, but it’s very likely that Facebook will eventually begin allowing third-party websites to offer a ‘Pay With Facebook’ option, and that may include everything from digital content to physical goods.
Why would physical goods sellers use an upstart payment platform that takes a 30% transactional cut when there are tons of established financial firms who will do the transactions for 3%-5%?
I mean the fact that they are making this mandatory means that they can't even organically convince vendors who are selling virtual goods on facebook's own platform. Surely this is facebook worship hand waving.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#16Isn't the Secret Service going to have a problem with this? I thought making your own currency was a huge no-no, and if it gets too popular they are going to have a hell of a time passing it off as something else to the government.
It's not much different than eBay requiring PayPal.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#17If someone doesn't like facebook, now is a very good time to have DOJ slap them around for anti-trust, just like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft
If those major developers were told "close a deal because we're willing to mandate using credits" then Facebook deserves to be punished for anti market practices. There is little difference between "hey my OS is popular, let me use it to bootstrap my browser share" and "hey my Social Network is popular, let me use it to bootstrap my payments product".
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#18Oh god no. As a Facebook app developer if something like this becomes official it would be like the end of the world.
Where are you GOOGLE ME?! SAVE US!
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#19Does anyone else see "(techcrunch.com)" at the end of the submission title and think of the boy who cried wolf?
This may be true but, for me, TechCrunch has gotten to the point where anytime I see one of their headlines I think it's sensationalist linkbait and I'm better off assuming what they're writing is exaggerated or simply not true.
As for the claim, it may be true but I really don't think it matters and this is something that's important for anyone assessing FB as an investment.
Facebook used to own social gaming. Arguably it still does. But it faces a huge threat, one which it hasn't remotely tackled: social gaming--and non-social gaming for that matter--is going mobile in a huge way.
Facebook gaming is built on Flash. As we all well know, Flash is incompatible with iOS and doesn't really suit touch-based interfaces for those platforms that do support Flash (eg use of rollovers and so on). That's not to say that you can't write a mobile-friendly game with Flash but, to date, most people haven't (in my albeit limited experience).
Facebook is, for most people, three things (IMHO): games, photo sharing and chat/messaging. FB's revenue seems built on ads and games. They're acting like they've got the market cornered on games but the don't. As Facebook usage goes mobile (as I believe it increasingly is), the draw of those games goes down and consequently so does the potential revenue.
Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo should already be scared to death of Apple as far as portable gaming goes. I think Facebook should add itself to that list.
Re: Facebook To Make ‘Facebook Credits’ Mandatory For Game Developers
#20It's funny how Apple charges 30% for in-app purchases, and that instantly becomes 'industry standard' in the minds of lazy TechCrunch writers. The cut taken by most virtual currency providers on Facebook is about a third of that. The 30% figure can only stand up in an environment without competition. Luckily for Facebook (and Apple), they can create an environment without competition by fiat.
And its that 30% figure which is going to prevent Facebook credits from becoming a wide-spread e-currency. There are many payment systems out there (Paypal, Google Checkout, etc.) that have lower fees and looser terms of service than Facebook. Its one thing for Facebook to mandate this for their own network. It'll be quite another for Facebook to push this service out onto the Internet as a whole.