Communications of the ACM
Facebook Hopes Virtual Credits Make Real Dollars
Facebook Credits gift cards at a Target store in Miami.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
For all its success, Google is often criticized for being a one-trick pony. After 12 years, the Internet search company is still struggling to find a significant new revenue source to supplement its lucrative text advertising business.
Facebook, which more than any other company aspires to usurp Google's dominant place on the Internet, hopes to avoid that problem. Already on the path to becoming an advertising powerhouse, the social networking company is laying the groundwork for its second act: a virtual currency system that some day could turn into a multibillion-dollar business.
Facebook began testing its virtual currency, called Credits, more than a year ago with some popular games on Facebook. This month, Credits passed a milestone when it became the exclusive payment method for most of the games created by Zynga, the No. 1 developer of Facebook applications.
From The New York Times
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