It would be surprising if anyone on Facebook has not seen the virtual gifts on sale. For actual moola you can send your friends any number of exotic-coloured gifts that they can’t actually touch or do anything with.
Last November, Facebook introduced their micro-payment “credits” system, changed from US dollars for the global market.
In the next few days, it would seem, Facebook are to start charging for applications, allowing them to start making some money from one of the largest, fastest growing social networks on the internet.
According to CNET, developers will soon be able to start building the credit system into their applications, with Facebook presumably taking a percentage of any revenue.
Until now, Facebook has relied on its advertising-driven business model but, charging for the use of applications, the company may start to see a more healthy balance sheet, riding on the tailcoats of Apple’s massively successful App Store.
At the moment, Facebook are playing their cards close to their chests, telling CNET: “We do not have details to share at the moment because this will be a very small alpha, only a handful of developers, but will likely share more as we evaluate the results of the test.”
With over 200 million active members, Facebook has a massive audience to target, and massive potential to create a new source of income. Whether people will be deterred by a pay-for-play service, however, is still debatable.
Applications such as Restaurant City and Pet Society, by Playfish, currently allow users to purchase add-ons or in-game currency with real money while remaining free for regular users. As the ability to charge for applications becomes mainstream, however, Facebook may see a decline from users (or are we customers now?) who do not want to foot the FaceBill.
For websites to continue to run and develop money is needed. Unfortunately, in a world where most things are free, business in the online world is a struggle. Will we accept that, if we want to continue to use Facebook, we will have to pay, or will we move on to the next free website?
See you all on Twitter.
Source: Speed Blog
2 thoughts on “Zuckerberg puts price on Facebook”
I suspect it’s a case of too little, too late.
A lack of a business plan is almost a pre-requisite of web 2.0 companies and facebook is no exception.
Came across this accurate critique of Spotify this morning: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/18/spotify/print.html
Hmmm, hard to see if the economics of this will work – people are so used to getting their Facebook apps for free, is it really possible people will start putting their hand in their pocket for them?