According to data from mobile analytics firm Flurry, more than two-thirds of mobile in-app purchases
for games on iOS and Android go towards buying consumable items — and that, for the most part, means virtual currency.

Mobile game developers are increasingly shifting away from a standard premium pricing structure and instead offering free games that can be augmented with in-app purchases. Last month Flurry reported that revenue from free-to-play games with in-app purchase options now exceeds the revenue of premium games. In fact, Flurry finds that consumers spend an average of $14 for an in-game transaction.

This follows a similar Flurry report from 2010, which revealed that virtual goods revenue is significantly higher than revenue from ad-supported mobile apps.

The new report looks at what kinds of in-app items consumers are buying.

Flurry has designated in-app purchases into three categories:

• Consumable — Items like virtual currency or special items that can help a player get through a game faster and ascend to the next level. These items are designated as “consumable” because once used, they can’t be used again.
• Durable — Items that can continue to be used in a game after purchase. This can also apply to additional levels or add-on packs in a game.
• Personalization — Items that don’t impact game play but can create a more personalized user experience. This could be something like clothes or outfits for an avatar.

According to Flurry, 68% of in-app game purchases are for consumable goods, with virtual currency purchases (think games like FarmVille and Smurf Village) being by far the most popular type of consumable good.

These trends mimic many of the purchasing trends seen in other types of games, such as those on Facebook and an increasing number of MMOs — not to mention World of Warcraft. The challenge for game developers will be to continue to provide new areas of value for the player in a maturing market.

How long will the virtual currency craze last? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More About: flurry, in-app purchases, mobile games, social games, stats

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Think of Mobage as Facebook and Zynga rolled into one, but

- available exclusively on cell phones (no PC version)
- with both first and third-party games (DeNA/ngmoco itself is making games, too)
- and a virtual social graph instead of a real one (most of your friends will probably be strangers, like in the Japanese version)

The platform is an entirely new, stand-alone social network with a focus on mobile gaming and with its own virtual currency MobaCoin – and now ngmoco aims at replicating the success DeNA saw in Japan (where the company boasts 30 million users) on a global level.

Mobage in English (“Mobage Global”) is initially targeted at Android users in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. A separate Chinese version (“Mobage China”) has been launched through a local DeNA subsidiary, and just like “Mobage Japan”, it won’t be connected with the global platform.

On Mobage in English, players can choose between 23 different titles from the get-go (i.e. Pocket God, We Rule, Zoo Land, Paper Toss etc. – see the full list here), with more than 100 additional games being in development currently.

Much like Zynga, the business model is to offer most games for free and monetize via sales of virtual items. As hinted at above, this model has worked very well for DeNA in Japan where the company is currently listed with a $7.6 billion market cap (you read that right).

Future plans by DeNA/ngmoco include the release of more titles, a Mobage iOS version and expanding Mobage Global to more markets. Competitor GREE (another Tokyo-based mobile social gaming powerhouse that recently acquired Openfeint for $104 million) is expected to make a push into the US market soon, too (that company opened an office in California in January this year).

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Think of Mobage as Facebook and Zynga rolled into one, but

- available exclusively on cell phones (no PC version)
- with both first and third-party games (DeNA/ngmoco itself is making games, too)
- and a virtual social graph instead of a real one (most of your friends will probably be strangers, like in the Japanese version)

The platform is an entirely new, stand-alone social network with a focus on mobile gaming and with its own virtual currency MobaCoin – and now ngmoco aims at replicating the success DeNA saw in Japan (where the company boasts 30 million users) on a global level.

Mobage in English (“Mobage Global”) is initially targeted at Android users in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. A separate Chinese version (“Mobage China”) has been launched through a local DeNA subsidiary, and just like “Mobage Japan”, it won’t be connected with the global platform.

On Mobage in English, players can choose between 23 different titles from the get-go (i.e. Pocket God, We Rule, Zoo Land, Paper Toss etc. – see the full list here), with more than 100 additional games being in development currently.

Much like Zynga, the business model is to offer most games for free and monetize via sales of virtual items. As hinted at above, this model has worked very well for DeNA in Japan where the company is currently listed with a $7.6 billion market cap (you read that right).

Future plans by DeNA/ngmoco include the release of more titles, a Mobage iOS version and expanding Mobage Global to more markets. Competitor GREE (another Tokyo-based mobile social gaming powerhouse that recently acquired Openfeint for $104 million) is expected to make a push into the US market soon, too (that company opened an office in California in January this year).

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Zynga, the creators of hit games like FarmVille and CityVille, has used its social gaming talents to create a gamified version of its privacy policies.

PrivacyVille is the gaming giant’s take on the boring privacy policy. It’s essentially a step-by-step tutorial through the most important aspects of the company’s privacy policy, using its trademark town and character designs. “PrivacyVille is modeled after our most popular game, CityVille, and provides a brief tutorial covering important sections of our Privacy Policy, as well as helpful resources about controlling your information online,” the company said on its blog.

PrivacyVille goes through items such as how Zynga handles email, the company’s mobile policies and the security measures it takes to protect user payments. Reading each section increases a user’s progress through PrivacyVille until he or she completes the tutorial. Once completed, the user is asked five (very easy) questions to confirm that he or she went through the tutorial.

One of the most interesting aspects of PrivacyVille is that it connects to RewardVille, the company’s virtual currency program. Users that complete the PrivacyVille tutorial get Zynga Points (zPoints) which can be turned into virtual currency or rewards.

It’s just the latest move for a company on a hot streak. Last week, Zynga filed for a $1 billion IPO that could value the company north of $20 billion. While the company’s user base has stopped growing, its revenue is booming.

More About: cityville, PrivacyVille, RewardVille, social games, social gaming, Zynga

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: BreakoutBand

Quick Pitch: Hone your musical skills and compete against others for prizes and virtual fame.

Genius Idea: A music-based social game that require skill — but not too much skill.

Music-oriented games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have allowed everyone and their mother to have a rock star moment. Online social game BreakoutBand kicks that experience up a notch, letting users create, record and share songs, as well as compete against other users for fame and glory.

“Guitar Hero and Rock Band were awesome, but it seemed that the natural evolution was to enable players to actually become the artist and make their own songs,” says founder David Moricca. Moricca has more than 10 years experience working in youth media and entertainment; he previously worked as director of online learning services at Scholastic.

There are a ton of platforms out there for musicians that allow bands to share music and enter remix competitions. BreakoutBand is like training wheels for services of that ilk. Users can join for free to create their band profiles, after which they can start making music. All jams are created via the site’s beat maker, where users can choose a song kit, complete with all the instruments one requires to compose a tune. One can then go into the vocal booth to warble away.

Naturally, users have to pay for said song kits. The site has a virtual currency called Breakout Bucks that you can purchase or earn by achieving certain milestones as an artist.

Once a song is completed, users can release their song, which will then be posted to their profiles and played on the site’s radio station. They can also share songs to Facebook and Twitter. One can even download a song for later listening. Naturally, the goal is to record palatable tunes, so as to accrue fans — and Bucks.

The site also hosts competitions, adding tangible prizes into the mix. In the past, BreakoutBand has partnered with Old Navy and Pepsi Max on branded song competitions, but recently it added a new competitive element featuring up-and-coming musicians. Users will be able to check out new artists via the site, as well as remix their songs in order to win prizes, such as video responses from the artist, VIP passes to shows, chances to meet the artists in person and merchandise.

The first artist on the digital block is rapper Kellee Maize, but BreakoutBand plans to feature a new band every five days.

When it comes to rights, all original songs created on the platform are owned by BreakoutBand, and remixed songs are owned by the artists. Still, Moricca says this state of affairs could change in the future.

“We will continue to evaluate the appropriate rights approach as the company progresses,” he says. “We have actually been blown away by the creativity of our artists and the quality of their songs, and our goal is to work with all of the different constituents to promote them. Hopefully, a superstar will emerge on the site and we can help them get discovered.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr, southerntabitha

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: BreakoutBand, MARKETING, music, social game, spark-of-genius, startup

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Originally posted at Deep Tech

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Yet, absent from Evans’ post is the very latest news out of the virtual currency market: Late this afternoon, Bitcoin suffered from another serious setback, as the network’s most popular exchange, Mt. Gox, was hacked. The unknown hacker(s) made an enormous sale of bitcoins from a compromised account, causing the price of the currency to fall from $17.5 to just pennies in a matter of minutes.

Mt. Gox’s Mark Karpeles issued a statement early this afternoon saying:

One account with a lot of coins was compromised and whoever stole it (using a HK based IP to login) first sold all the coins in there, to buy those again just after, and then tried to withdraw the coins. The $1000/day withdraw limit was active for this account and the hacker could only get out with $1000 worth of coins.

While the hacker’s loot may have at first seemed like a silver lining, it has since come to light that whoever owned the compromised account also had “read-only access” to Mt. Gox’s database, which enabled the hacker(s) to pull information from older Bitcoin accounts, including email addresses and hashed passwords.

A discussion on Reddit found some readers saying that the hackers were able to take Gmail addresses and hashed passwords to brute-force users’ real passwords. Just as Reddit users recommend that anyone using the same passwords for Mt. Gox accounts, email addresses and so on, immediately change all passwords, Karpeles has also advised all Bitcoin users not to download any information (certificate or otherwise) sent from Mt. Gox until further notice.

Until the investigation concludes and security is confirmed, Karpeles said, Mt. Gox will remain offline. When it does in fact come back online, users will be put through “a new security measure to authenticate the users. This will be a mix of matching the last IP address that accessed the account, verifying their email address, account name and old password. Users will then be prompted to enter in a new strong password.”

Bitcoin has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy lately, as the U.S. Senate has been drafting anti-Bitcoin law, and there had been reports this week that hackers had begun targeting Bitcoin users’ virtual wallets with Malware and more, in an attempt to steal the virtual currency. However, an important thing to note for the anti-Bitcoiners is that the underlying peer-to-peer transaction clearing process does not seem to have been compromised — at least in this incident. Instead, the Mt. Gox crash appears to be the result of poor security on the part of a single user.

Whether or not one believes that Bitcoin marks the future of currency, there appear to be a number of sites and blogs writing openly about the security holes in Bitcoin’s current system. Quora even has a string on this topic. That doesn’t bode well for confidence in the virtual currency market, at least in the short term. On the other hand, having its network security dissected by various sites and message boards across the Web, as well as market crashes like the one that happened today, will hopefully be used as fodder for building a better and more secure exchange.

And it’s worth mentioning, for how much both have been in the news of late, this does not appear to be a LulzSec Production, nor does Anonymous seem to have anything to do with it. In fact, some even want LulzSec to be the White Hats that hack-test a new, private security exchange for Bitcoin.

In the end, as Evans so astutely said, whether or not Bitcoin itself is a success, its existence is notable (and significant), as it may likely herald future iterations of virtual exchanges that could very well change the face of currency as we know it. The Internet has a way of doing that. Until then, Bitcoin users should increase the level of security of their own accounts and passwords, and expect these kinds of crashes to happen again.

For those looking for an exhaustive explanation of what Bitcoin is and does, check out The Economist’s run-down here.

Or you can just turn to Tweets like this one:

Or this apt description from a commenter on Slashdot, which includes, “Bitcoin is a decentralised computer currency designed by self-righteous Ayn Rand-reading nerds who despise looters and parasites like, er, you. It is used to purchase Internet services, illegal drugs and pictures of naked women holding video cards”.

Go to Source

Yet, absent from Evans’ post is the very latest news out of the virtual currency market: Late this afternoon, Bitcoin suffered from another serious setback, as the network’s most popular exchange, Mt. Gox, was hacked. The unknown hacker(s) made an enormous sale of bitcoins from a compromised account, causing the price of the currency to fall from $17.5 to just pennies in a matter of minutes.

Mt. Gox’s Mark Karpeles issued a statement early this afternoon saying:

One account with a lot of coins was compromised and whoever stole it (using a HK based IP to login) first sold all the coins in there, to buy those again just after, and then tried to withdraw the coins. The $1000/day withdraw limit was active for this account and the hacker could only get out with $1000 worth of coins.

While the hacker’s loot may have at first seemed like a silver lining, it has since come to light that whoever owned the compromised account also had “read-only access” to Mt. Gox’s database, which enabled the hacker(s) to pull information from older Bitcoin accounts, including email addresses and hashed passwords.

A discussion on Reddit found some readers saying that the hackers were able to take Gmail addresses and hashed passwords to brute-force users’ real passwords. Just as Reddit users recommend that anyone using the same passwords for Mt. Gox accounts, email addresses and so on, immediately change all passwords, Karpeles has also advised all Bitcoin users not to download any information (certificate or otherwise) sent from Mt. Gox until further notice.

Until the investigation concludes and security is confirmed, Karpeles said, Mt. Gox will remain offline. When it does in fact come back online, users will be put through “a new security measure to authenticate the users. This will be a mix of matching the last IP address that accessed the account, verifying their email address, account name and old password. Users will then be prompted to enter in a new strong password.”

Bitcoin has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy lately, as the U.S. Senate has been drafting anti-Bitcoin law, and there had been reports this week that hackers had begun targeting Bitcoin users’ virtual wallets with Malware and more, in an attempt to steal the virtual currency. However, an important thing to note for the anti-Bitcoiners is that the underlying peer-to-peer transaction clearing process does not seem to have been compromised — at least in this incident. Instead, the Mt. Gox crash appears to be the result of poor security on the part of a single user.

Whether or not one believes that Bitcoin marks the future of currency, there appear to be a number of sites and blogs writing openly about the security holes in Bitcoin’s current system. Quora even has a string on this topic. That doesn’t bode well for confidence in the virtual currency market, at least in the short term. On the other hand, having its network security dissected by various sites and message boards across the Web, as well as market crashes like the one that happened today, will hopefully be used as fodder for building a better and more secure exchange.

And it’s worth mentioning, for how much both have been in the news of late, this does not appear to be a LulzSec Production, nor does Anonymous seem to have anything to do with it. In fact, some even want LulzSec to be the White Hats that hack-test a new, private security exchange for Bitcoin.

In the end, as Evans so astutely said, whether or not Bitcoin itself is a success, its existence is notable (and significant), as it may likely herald future iterations of virtual exchanges that could very well change the face of currency as we know it. The Internet has a way of doing that. Until then, Bitcoin users should increase the level of security of their own accounts and passwords, and expect these kinds of crashes to happen again.

For those looking for an exhaustive explanation of what Bitcoin is and does, check out The Economist’s run-down here.

Or you can just turn to Tweets like this one:

Or this apt description from a commenter on Slashdot, which includes, “Bitcoin is a decentralised computer currency designed by self-righteous Ayn Rand-reading nerds who despise looters and parasites like, er, you. It is used to purchase Internet services, illegal drugs and pictures of naked women holding video cards”.

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Well, sort of. I concede it does look a bit like the lunatics, black-hats, and bubbleheads have conquered the asylum, but there’s nothing inherently crazy or shady about a distributed online currency. What is kind of crazy is assuming that the first one that comes along will last and retain its value indefinitely, which is what almost everyone investing in Bitcoin is doing. (The rest are hoping to sell out to a greater fool, a strategy which admittedly made a few people wealthy during the South Seas tulip bubble and the dotcom boom, but—pretty much by definition—was a loser for most.) Does Bitcoin have a long-term future? I strongly doubt it … but I expect that something like Bitcoin eventually will.

Right now, though, the fools and crazies are muddying the water, and inspiring somewhat-justified contempt like

Follow @seldo@seldo
Laurie Voss

If lotteries are a tax on those who are bad at math, then bitcoin is a tax on those who are bad at economics.

June 10, 2011 12:14 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

or even more cynically,

Follow @johl@johl
Jens Ohlig

Battle of the pyramid schemes: Groupon vs Bitcoin, fight!

June 14, 2011 4:38 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

“Pyramid scheme,” though, is unfair (to both.) Bitcoin is a fairly monumental achievement—but it’s a trailblazer, not a destination. It should be viewed as a springboard for future iterations, but most of the community that all its recent publicity has attracted seems unable to look past the present, and is treating it as either a get-rich-quick scheme or a cypherpunk fantasy come to life. The good news is, in the long run, this is ideal—because the crazier the Bitcoin world gets, the more we can learn from the madness, and the better its successor(s) will be.

Image: biggertree, Flickr.

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Two-year old online game Moshi Monsters has just reached a sizable milestone: 50 million registered users.

Moshi Monsters is a social online game/community that allows kids 6 to 12 to adopt virtual pets, tool around a virtual land called Monstro City, play games to earn virtual currency and communicate with other kids in a moderated, safe environment. The franchise also includes toys (coming soon), books, video games, trading cards and a Moshi magazine. Moshi will also soon begin its foray into music, live tours, a TV platform and film.

Moshi, founded by London-based startup Mind Candy, also reports that it has more than 15 million registered users (out of the total 50 million) in North America. Apparently, the game gets one signup per second.

Fifty million is a pretty hefty community, but it makes sense considering the rise of the digital native we have been privy to lately. In October, a study conducted by Internet security firm AVG found that 92% of children in the U.S. have an online presence by the time they are two, compared to 73% in western Europe.

More About: Children, mind-candy, moshi-monsters, social media

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Burson-Marsteller, which is owned by WPP, was retained by Facebook in an effort to call attention to a number of privacy-related issues with Google.

That Facebook would do this is somewhat ironic given that its own privacy track record isn’t so great either. In retrospect, Facebook’s effort is very much a reminder of the old adage, “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones“.

It’s unclear whether or not Facebook’s faux pas will result in serious harm to the company’s brand.

Facebook, after all, has been here before, surviving even the most embarrassing revelations about its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and his past behaviour. But that shouldn’t be its biggest concern.

The real concern: that Facebook is increasingly taking its eye off the ball. By focusing in on a rivalry with Google which may or may not be meaningful, it risks losing sight of the things that really matter. Yes, the company is on top of the world, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its problems.

On the consumer side, there are hints that Facebook growth has plateaued in some of its most important markets. That, of course, is to be expected eventually, but what should be concerning is that growth has gone negative in some instances.

Is this a harbinger of a significant decline? Maybe not, but it’s still clear that Facebook will need to shift a good amount of its attention from ‘recruiting‘ to ‘retention‘ sooner than later.

On the platform side, there’s increasing talk that Facebook is losing its edge as building a profitable app becomes more challenging.

User acquisition costs are going up, and with Facebook set to take a piece of all the virtual currency action (past promises be damned), it may be harder for all but the largest existing players to participate profitably in this ecosystem.

While this may not seem like a problem (Facebook doesn’t necessarily need anyone but larger developers), it will change the platform’s position in the market and possibly not for the better.

These are but two of the things that will present challenges in the near future. Yet while clouds form on the horizon, Facebook is apparently busier worrying about Google’s stance on privacy. That may prove to be a serious mistake because if a company doesn’t handle its business, the company’s business may just handle it.

A little bird just told us two interesting web apps from an admirable developer are up for grabs.

Creator Kyle Bragger, who also cranked out killer dev/design web app Forrst, is looking for a buyer for these applications.

Last year, we told you about two great consumer web apps. Streak.ly is a motivational tool that helps you knock out your daily tasks. The app uses badges and other incentives to make a game out of accomplishing your goals.

The other app is Facto.me, a fun and addictive tool for sharing facts about yourself. This one reminded us a lot of Formspring; both of these apps neatly toe the line between pure navel-gazing vanity and truly social interaction online.

So why is Bragger letting these two enjoyable, well-made apps go? We’re guessing he simply doesn’t have time to maintain and market them, given the success of Forrst.

Forrst seems to have been taking up much of Bragger’s attention lately. In December, the site launched a virtual currency and credits system called Acorns, and traffic on the site has seen a steady uptick since then, as well.

On his personal blog, Bragger writes, “Neither [Streak.ly nor Facto.me] have received the love and attention they deserve as of late, but maybe you can change that. Both have received a nice amount of exposure and have users in the mid-thousands; both are (were) enjoyable projects to work on and certainly have bigger potential were the right person (or team) to be at the helm.”

A previous Bragger creation, location app Placefav, was acquired by WheresCool.com in 2009. His productivity app Done.io was handed over to Inevitable Corp. about a year ago, as well.

It’s interesting to watch a prolific and on-trend developer work his way through these products, and we’re interested to know where they’ll end up next.

More About: facto.me, forrst, kyle bragger, streak.ly, streakly

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By downloading and installing the featured application (available for Mac, Windows and Linux), people will be creating a sort of virtual wallet from which they will be able to make payments (and to which they will receive payments themselves).

Read more

Learn more about Bitcoin.org in Dataopedia.com

Find out how much Bitcoin.org is worth with Stimator.com

Have a business question? Ask Startups.com

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The Social Research Platform (SRP) can layer opt-in social data of a user’s interests and demographics on top of survey responses. With access to this information, brands can make better decisions about ad campaigns, marketing strategies, and competitive positioning.

“In the same way that Hollywood studios screen movies to gauge consumer reaction prior to general release, companies can use the Social Research Platform to test and refine brand messaging or get feedback on products,” said Ankur Shah, co-founder of Techlightenment.

“And with the social research platform, we can reach more than 10,000 people, online, in a day.”

Adknowledge will offer users virtual currency and in-game points that can be used on a number of Facebook games, for taking part in surveys. Brands can promote surveys on their Facebook pages and websites. Techlightenment says the Social Research Platform is compliant with Facebook’s privacy and social gaming guidelines.

“Adknowledge connects advertisers with consumers where they spend their time. With the Social Research Platform, we offer virtual currency in exchange for completing surveys,” said John Cole, Managing Director of Adknowledge Europe.

“There are hundreds of millions of social gamers in Facebook, 80% of which play at least once a day, and we’ve seen that they are happy to trade their time and attention for rewards in the games they play.

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lolstack is an image sharing community dedicated to original content.

Current image sharing solutions suffer from a variety of problems.

-4chan: Terrible signal to noise ratio. It’s full of low quality content.
-Reddit’s /r/pics: Too many reposts. The same pictures get cycled through ad nauseum.
-failblog: No sense of community, also full of reposts.
lolstack solves these systemic problems through the following methods:
1) Repost detection
Every time a user submits an image, a perceptual hash is calculated and compared against every other image in the database. If the image is too similar, the image is rejected automatically.
2) Democratic voting
The wisdom of the crowds is an effective means to highlight the good stuff.
3) Virtual currency incentives
Users are rewarded for producing quality content. For example, if you submit a picture or comment that receives more than 100 upvotes, then you’re credited 50 lolbucks. You’ll be able to spend these lolbucks on nifty account upgrades like colored usernames, avatar images, or more powerful upvotes for a day. Eventually users will be able to spend lolbucks on real world items.

view more

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A new social network that aims to be a Facebook alternative for children between the ages of 8 and 13 is launching on Tuesday. Schools, brands and investors are already on board.

The network, Everloop, operates much like Facebook (virtual currency, photo albums and games included), but requires verified parental permission to join. Parents can also select which of their child’s actions on the site they would like to be notified about, and have the option to restrict features like IM and friend suggestions. All activity on the site is monitored by the company to prevent inappropriate behavior.

These key features make Everloop compatible with The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits websites from collecting information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. Most tweens bypass this law on other social networks by simply lying about their birthdays. Schools, on the other hand, generally block social networks like Facebook and Twitter for the same reasons that unsupervised public platforms make some parents of tweens nervous.

Because it is COPPA-compliant, Everloop can be used in schools. In April, a partnership with Internet safety education program i-Safe will bring the platform into about 56,000 schools. I-Safe will incorporate a white-label version of the network into its curriculum in order to demonstrate social media skills (and get parents to sign over permission to use Everloop sites in the process).

Everloop is not restricting itself to schools as other child-safe social networks like Edmodo have. Nor is it ignoring brands that are clamoring for the attention of its demographic. The network has already partnered with virtual concert site Planet Cazmo and other children’s brands that are eager to share their content on a platform that kids already go to rather than build one of their own. Branded goods, such as stickers that children can use to decorate profile pages, are also in the works.

This business model has persuaded vFormation and other angel investors to put $2.5 million into the company. But will the platform persuade kids to move from Facebook to Everloop?

While various national news stories have made it clear that Facebook isn’t age appropriate for tweens, its also clear that the line between “age appropriate” and “not cool” is delicate. Everloop argues that the content on their site will be more appealing to children than content designed for adults on other social networks. (FarmVille for sixth graders?) The company has been successful with pitches to investors and partners, but convincing tweens to make the site their online home base might be its toughest sell yet.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pixdeluxe

More About: Children, education, everloop, Kids, schools, social media

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The new service allows iOS and Android app developers to reward users for not only installing and downloading their app but also for completing some type of action within it, such as watching the tutorial, getting past a certain level or any other specific activity.

“The Pay-Per-Install model has proven extremely successful in driving cost-effective user acquisition for mobile developers. The release of our Pay-Per-Action SDK, however, takes that model to the next level,” said Linda Tong, senior product manager at Tapjoy.

“Now, instead of simply awarding virtual currency when a user installs your app, we allow you to incentivize users to get past Level 1, for instance, or do whatever it is you feel will truly engage them in your app and get them to keep using it.”

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Break out your snake bite kits — Oregon Trail is now on Facebook!

Oregon Trail for Facebook combines qualities of the original game (and its various incarnations) with popular social games like FarmVille and CityVille.

Users can add friends to their wagon parties and have the option to continue on a solitary journey or with an entourage. Supplies for the trail — items like food, antibiotics, wagon parts and clothing — can be procured using virtual currency. This currency can be purchased with Facebook Credits.

Aside from general trail activities, users can play mini games and complete tasks to earn more virtual currency and reach higher levels.

In our brief time with the game, we found it a little hard to use. The game is still in its early stages of development, but figuring out how to start or complete missions was less intuitive than we were expecting.

Nostalgia will undoubtedly bring throngs of users to Oregon Trail for Facebook, but it remains to be seen if the game can be addictive enough to keep users coming back.

The beauty of the original Apple II game, was that while educational, it was replayable. We fondly remember waiting patiently for our turn at the computer in second and third grade, if only to get a chance to hunt some buffalo.

Beyond Oregon Trail, The Learning Company plans to launch the Facebook version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on February 9. Carmen Sandiego may not have the same following as Oregon Trail, but we actually think the mechanics of the game and its structure makes it better suited for Facebook and other social platforms.

What do you think of Oregon Trail for Facebook? Are you ready to see a modernized “Zed died from Dysentery” message? Let us know.

More About: facebook games, Oregon Trail, oregon trail facebook, social games

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With over 300,000 apps in the App Store and virtual goods revenue projected to pass $2 billion in the U.S. in 2011, the Ad-Funded Payment Platform helps iOS app developers achieve their discovery and monetization goals. The solution works by rewarding users with virtual currency in free iOS games for installing apps from advertisers.

The Ad-Funded Payment Platform provides customizable offer interfaces for publishers, robust and intelligent reporting for developers and better end-user experiences for iOS gamers. The Ad-Funded Payment Platform also offers variations optimized for iPhone and iPad. This new product is driven by W3i’s proprietary InstallIQ software, optimized on 500 million downloads.

“The W3i Ad-Funded Payment Platform provides publishers an opportunity to monetize and drive their virtual goods transactions in a branded offer wall experience, while giving advertisers powerful insights and control into their marketing campaigns through sophisticated campaign dashboards. Users get free apps. A win-win-win,” said Andy Johnson, CEO W3i.

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Here’s an interesting twist on the online business model: Designer/developer community Forrst is allowing users to purchase “Acorns,” a sort of virtual currency that can be traded in for pageviews on a particular post.

Forrst is a popular site where developers and designers can share code snippets, design snapshots and interesting articles; users can also request community feedback on current projects.

Acorns and promoted posts are a big part of Forrst’s third iteration, which has been rolled out just shy of the site’s first birthday.

Acorns can be bought with Paypal; each one costs $5 and guarantees a specific number of impressions for promoted posts.

Any Forrst user can use Acorns to make sure that his or her important posts, such as job-related posts or promotional posts about new products, are seen by thousands of users in the web development and design community.

The Forrst team says Acorns will also be used for “a few things coming over the next few months,” so we’ll keep our eyes open for whatever goodies Forrst might be rolling out in early 2011.

Other changes include a new homepage (which is much less adorable but much more functional for the first-time user), a redesign of post pages, and an impressive, ground-up rewrite of the site architecture and libraries.

To accomplish this rewrite, the Forrst team wrote a PHP5 framework called Magnus, which they hope to open-source sometime in the next year. We’ll be keeping you posted on that, as well.

Forrst is also integrating with JSFiddle, Pastie and GitHub’s Gist for its code snippets.

We’re impressed with the improvements that the Forrst team is rolling out and on the impression the site has made on the web design/development community over the past year. What do you think of Acorns and the other Forrst changes in version three?

More About: acorns, business, community, design, forrst

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Forget the $1 billion figure thrown around earlier this year; sources close to Facebook financials say the social network is closer to reporting revenues of $2 billion for 2010.

If these reports are accurate, Facebook’s annual revenue would have more than doubled since last year, when the company made around $800 million.

While astronomical compared to most startups’ revenues, these figures are hardly a surprise to anyone familiar with Facebook’s advertising and virtual currency advances in the past 12 months.

The company now competes with Google for online ad dollars from major brands as well as small businesses that need targeted marketing with high ROI. In fact, Facebook serves around 50 billion display ads per month and is on track to serve 1 trillion display ads for all of 2010.

And when it comes to revenue from virtual currency — revenue that comes, in a roundabout way, directly from Facebook users themselves — Facebook is seeing more cash all the time. The blockbuster success of casual games from studios such as Zynga add up to more coin in Facebook’s coffers when users pay with Facebook Credits; for every dollar the user spends on Facebook Credits, the social network gets 30 cents.

Virtual currencies aside, the lion’s share of Facebook’s revenue still comes from advertising and marketing — a game that Facebook is really just beginning to play well.

Right now, Google and Facebook are both ramping up for an epic battle for location-based ad dollars, especially where small and medium-sized businesses are concerned. How Facebook performs in 2011 may have a lot to do with how it competes in offering a compelling and effective location-based marketing platform for businesses of all sizes.

More About: facebook, facebook credits, Revenue

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When smart, the ultra-compact brand of Diamler AG, wanted to boost the presence of its smart fourtwo vehicle in the US, the company turned to UGC. And in the safe confines of online artist community deviantART, the campaign was able to flourish.

Campaign objective

Raise awareness of the smart fourtwo’s custom skins and design options with buyers aged 35+

Messaging

Smart fourtwo buyers can choose from a variety of different paint jobs and skins to make their already unique car, well, even more unique. To tap into that creative streak, smart USA picked deviantART, an online community of artists with over 13 million members.

DeviantART members can post their artwork, buy items with virtual currency, and even create art online with a free digital drawing tool, making the community an ideal environment for smart USA’s Skinned Smartly contest. The contest gave members a plain fourtwo and told them to let their imaginations run wild. Prizes for the best designs were tangible – iPads, membership upgrades, and money – as opposed to just community “recognition.”

DeviantART encouraged participation and generated exposure to the Skinned Smartly campaign using three channels:

• Dedicated contest page – DeviantART calls the contest pages “news articles,” and posts them in a special section on the site. The Skinned Smartly contest page generated 48,000+ page views over the course of the campaign.

Why a separate section and not the homepage? The company doesn’t want to bombard its community with branded content, and members have already been trained to find contests in the same place every time. “Contests are very popular. We even have members hosting contests themselves,” said Heather Wetzler, deviantART’s VP of sales. Other brands that have run contests include Sony, Toshiba and Mentos, among others.

• Targeted emails – The deviantART community has its own messaging system. Smart USA wanted to target members over 35 in the US, so deviantART segmented its user base and sent 5.7 million messages, complete with a link back to the main contest page.

• Banner ads – DeviantART created Skinned Smartly branded banners to run on its own site; the banners generated over 11 million impressions with smartUSA’s target audience. CTR was 4.1%

Stats – what was smartUSA’s ROI?

The campaign ran for the month of July and cost less than $200,000. Wetzler said smart USA’s focus was “increasing visibility” of the brand overall, as well as “increasing awareness” of the fact that buyers could customize their vehicles via the smart Expressions boutique.

That means most of the metrics pertain to engagement:

Total entries: 2,800+
Entry pageviews: 269,000+
Entries “favorited”: 3,400+
Entry comments: 5,000+

Still, as we’ve seen, there are ways for marketers to track traditional branding metrics like purchase intent and awareness with online ad campaigns – and not just rely on engagement metrics. Figuring out whether the contest drove those kinds of lifts for smart USA and the smart twofour, would be an even better way to track the effectiveness of the Skinned Smartly campaign.

Wetzler said deviantART actually has the tools available to offer those kinds of metrics. The company can poll a segment of users about a brand before and after a campaign runs, for example, but that those kinds of insights weren’t requested for this particular campaign.

If it sounds like too much work, read on from some stats from Interpret
that prove why gamers may be an e-tailer’s most coveted target
demographic. 

Gamers are more inclined to be online shoppers

First, let’s get a simple definition out of the way. For this study, Interpret defined gamers as people who had either purchased a game, played PC or console games, or even just spent a few hours playing social games on Facebook.

The company found that gamers were 20% more likely to have made an online purchase in the past month than non-gamers overall. Narrowing it down further, casual gamers were 8% more likely to have bought online than the average consumer.

Gamers are more influential online

Gamers aren’t just shopping more – they’re telling others about where to shop and why. Interpret found gamers were 109% more likely to rate or review an online product than the average consumer.

Gamers were also 50% more likely to agree that they were “asked their opinion about products and services” by their peers than non-gamers.

Gamers are more inclined to buy within a “gamified” environment

Gamers were 70% more likely to make purchases from within a gamified environment (one that includes game-based elements), than average consumers.

Drilling down further, social gamers were two times as likely – or more than 100% likely – to shop from within the gaming environment.

The increase in social/casual gaming is largely responsible for the
broadening of the description of “gamers” overall, making this last statistic especially relevant for ecommerce.

If an etailer can mimic social gaming cues by adding features like rewards, frequent shopper badges, points, or virtual credits to the online shopping experience they can really harness this propensity for gamers to shop while in the gaming environment.

PayPal was the bright spot in eBay’s third quarter earnings. The
company, whose name has become synonymous with online payments, boosted
the online auction company with its strong continued growth.

And if the company has its way, that growth won’t be stagnating anytime
soon. At the Innovate 2010 developer conference yesterday, PayPal made
it clear: its future is micropayments and mobile.

PayPal’s new PayPal for Digital Goods is designed to let publishers finally cash in on paid digital content without having to give up a hefty portion of their revenue where small transactions are involved.

PayPal’s press release describes PayPal for Digital Goods as “a new in-context, frictionless payment solution that lets consumers pay for
digital goods and content in as little as two clicks, without ever having to
leave a publisher’s game, news, music, video or media site.” Publishers pay just five cents and 5% of the transaction value.

Initial partners using Digital Goods are Facebook, the world’s largest social network which is aggressively moving into the virtual currency business, and FT.com, one of the few major news publishers with a successful paid content model.

Removing the friction and cost involved in digital goods micropayments certainly provides big opportunity for PayPal. But an even bigger opportunity exists in the mobile payments arena. And there too, PayPal had some major announcements.

At Innovate 2010, PayPal unveiled a number of mobile initiatives, but perhaps the most intriguing was its partnership with Appcelerator, which provides developers with tools for building cross-platform mobile apps:

Appcelerator has signed a mobile partner program agreement with PayPal to offer a fully integrated mobile commerce offering called Titanium+Commerce to over 8 million PayPal merchants in the first half of 2011. Titanium+Commerce, available in beta starting today, makes it easy for any merchant to rapidly build cross-platform mobile applications that harness a full set of commerce capabilities using existing Web skills and technologies. Merchants and online businesses can rapidly extend into mobile commerce by enabling the purchase of real and virtual goods, services, and content from smartphones, tablets, connected TVs, and other devices.

Appcelerator says that Titanium+Commerce is designed to tap into the “trillion dollar mobile commerce opportunity” and a video demonstrating its capabilities, embedded below, is summed up best in one word: impressive. Which is probably one of the reasons why PayPal’s parent, eBay, is participating in a $9m funding round for Appcelerator.

The question now, of course, is how this all plays out. A viable platform for micropayment transactions could have a significant impact on the market for paid content, as publishers may have the ability to create more attractive business models and product offerings.

And as mobile commerce dreams finally become reality, there may be significant disruption in the mobile space as dominant companies like Apple grapple with how to maintain control of their ecosystems as third parties cash in using external payment solutions.

Photo credit: digitaljournal.com via Flickr.

Gift cards worth $10, $25, and $50 should become available at Best Buy stores this week, while Walmart will sell cards worth $5, $10, $25, and $50.  And although only U.S. stores will carry the cards and Facebook Credits won’t gain any new uses, this definitely counts as a win for Facebook.

Alexei Oreskovic reported, "Facebook began selling Facebook Credit gift cards at Target stores earlier this year, but landing on WalMart and Best Buy shelves should vastly expand the availability of its fledgling currency – at the end of 2009, WalMart had more than 3,600 stores in the United States."

Plus, this isn’t a simple matter of brand presence and mindshare.  Oreskovic noted, "[W]ith Facebook taking a 30 percent cut of the revenue that application-makers book on transactions involving Facebook credits, the more people that are using Credits, the better for Facebook."

Unfortunately, the specifics of whatever deals Facebook made with Best Buy and Walmart remain unknown, so it’s difficult to say what (if any) price Facebook was willing to pay to get more people using its virtual currency.

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If you have young children on Facebook or MySpace, they shouldn’t be — at least legally. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prevents websites from collecting personal information about children who are under the age of 13 without their parents’ permission.

Many children bypass this law, even on sites that enforce it, by simply adjusting their birthday. In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 75% of seventh through 12th graders surveyed said they had a profile on a social media site.

Clearly children want to use social media, and the evidence suggests that they will do so despite COPPA or the many justified parental fears that helped create it. Parents can, however, make the experience safer by directing their children to one of these five age-appropriate social networks.

1. Togetherville

Parents can sign up their children by using their own Facebook accounts to create a profile for their kids on this Facebook-like site. Once parents have selected friends for their children by searching other students at their child’s schools, adding family friends from their own Facebook profiles, and sending e-mail invites, children have access to selected YouTube videos, games, and creative projects. The site has other features that mirror Facebook, like the ability to “heart it,” buy and send gifts using a virtual currency (the twist is that parents give the currency to their children free of cost as “allowance”), and share videos and other parts of the site with their friends.

Where the site departs from Facebook puts many parents’ minds at rest: no outside links, no unapproved friends, and no private conversations. In order to post original comments instead of pre-set options, children must agree to this code of conduct: “I agree to not say anything mean or hurtful, not say embarrassing things about myself, my friends, or my family, and take responsibility for what I say on Togetherville.”

Togetherville’s target age group is under 10, which makes pre-set comment options like “Hampsters are so CUTE!” understandable. The site also facilitates parents’ participation in their children’s introduction to social media by encouraging parent-child interaction. Not only can parents view their child’s social network activity, but they can also post messages to his or her wall, allocate “virtual allowances,” and send virtual gifts.

2. What’s What

This site is probably the most secure social network for kids on this list. In order to sign their children up, parents need to submit their credit card information to verify their identity and they must submit three mug shots (taken with a webcam) of their child for the site’s records. As with every site on this list, I was still able to create a profile as an adult and therefore browse friends in “my grade,” which I selected as seventh. Unlike the other sites, however, the What’s What team had discovered my adult presence (via those mug shots) within about six hours and blocked my profile.

While children are free to interact with people they don’t know, they can’t make friends with people who are out of their age group (in their grade or one grade below or above theirs) without parental permission. Beyond this, the network functions much like the others: users can exchange messages, make friends, join and create groups, and view their friends’ profiles. Parents can edit or delete their children’s profiles at any time, and everything posted on the site is monitored.

The intended age group for the site is between 8 and 14, which seems realistic given that two big draws of social networking — the ability to “make friends” with new people and share your thoughts with others — are retained.

3. ScuttlePad

To sign up for ScuttlePad, kids provide their birthday, favorite color, first name, and parent’s e-mail address, and they’re not allowed on the site until their parents approve it. Once logged in, they’re free to post messages, make friends, upload photos, and make comments — but with a catch. All comments on the site need to follow a given format and use a given set of words. Messages are composed within the framework, “I’m click, click, click,” with each click leading to a choice of words. Photos are manually approved by ScuttlePad, and only first names are used on the site.

The comment outline feature makes the site more secure. Realistically, anyone of any age, with any malicious intention, could sign up, but it’s hard to do much damage with the pre-set communication options. Similarly, it’s impossible to cyber bully or even really hurt anyone’s feelings using the preset options.

On the other hand, this feature can be restricting to the point of making the online experience dull to older kids. The site is intended to teach children ages 6 to 11 about how to use a social media site, and it definitely accomplishes that goal. It might be most engaging, however, for kids on the younger end of that age group.

4. giantHello

Parents can verify their identities and sign their children up for giantHello by either providing the last four digits of their social security number or by charging one cent to a credit card. Beyond that, the site provides the social networking experience that comes closest to mainstream social media networks, making it more appealing to older children who want more autonomy than is allowed on some of the other sites.

Profile pages function much like a Facebook wall: friends can leave comments, children can update their status, and activity on the site — like joining groups — is reported on their page. Children also have options to send private message, upload photos, and join the fan pages of celebrities like the Jonas Brothers and Ryan Seacrest, which are updated via the celebrities’ Twitter feeds.

As far as the social media experience goes, giantHello parts from its mainstream counterpart by removing the “search for friends” function. Children need to either invite friends via an e-mail or print out as page with an invitation code to give them. Therefore, they can’t make friends with people who they don’t know.

5. Skid-e Kids

Skid-e kids relies on staff moderators for most of its security features: if a comment is flagged by a filter for inappropriate language or disclosure of personally identifiable information, it is sent to human moderation; all photos are checked by a moderators; users submit articles and stories for a “written by you” section that are edited for inappropriate language and personal information before they’re posted; and interest group pages are moderated.

Unlike most sites, parents and children both are encouraged to create profiles on the same network. Users can exchange messages, update their statuses, upload video (which needs to be approved before it is posted), and compete against each other for high scores on any of the free games on the site. Unfortunately most of these games are prefaced by ads, and although they are advertised as educational, it’s hard to see how something like “Powerpuff coloring” fits this description.

The advantage of this site, especially for older children, is that much of the moderation is provided by the site itself. Parents aren’t required to constantly check in or approve decisions, but can instead focus on interacting with their children on the same network.

More Parenting Resources from Mashable:

– HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog
– The Case For Social Media in Schools
– Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation
– 20 Fantastic Free iPhone Apps for Parents
– Top 7 Sites for Parenting How-To Videos

Image courtesy of Flickr, Scott & Elaine van der Chijs

More About: Children, Gianthello, Kids, List, Lists, parenting, ScuttlePad, sites for kids, skid-e kids, social media, social media for kids, social network for kids, togetherville, What’s What

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Alex Rampell is founder and CEO of TrialPay, the leading provider of transactional advertising technology that uses the efficiencies of the web to pair online shoppers with ideal offers at every stage of the purchase process.

With Advertising Week upon us, many marketers at the NYC conference will be examining the new ways they can reach customers on Facebook. While Facebook is now the largest display advertising site on the Internet, there are many other ways besides display ads for companies to reach consumers on the network. One of the most effective new ways to advertise is inside social games.

According to a recent report by Nielsen, online games have surpassed personal e-mail to become the second most popular activity on the web, accounting for 10% of time spent online. Games also represent a huge audience for advertisers, as more than 56 million Americans play social games on a regular basis.

Social games provide some unique opportunities for advertisers, as gameplay generally involves virtual goods — things players want, but often don’t want to pay for. Game publishers have begun to tie virtual goods or currency to “real world” purchases from advertising partners (spend $50 at the Gap, get 20 Facebook Credits, for example). Advertisers can also use in-game ads to get in front of consumers before there is purchase intent. While a consumer might not have been planning to shop at the Gap when she logged into Sorority Life, she might make a purchase when she’s offered free virtual currency.

In-game marketing works well for a wide range of advertisers; from a consumer perspective, this is what various promotions look like:

• Retail goods: Get virtual currency or goods for free in return for making a purchase from an online retailer like Gap.com or Nordstrom.com.
• Subscription services: Sign up for a monthly service (such as Netflix) to get free virtual currency or goods.
• Local advertisers: Order a pizza online at PapaJohns.com to get virtual currency (works great at 5 p.m.)
• Survey research: Complete a survey to receive free virtual currency or goods.
• Branded video views: Watch a short video ad or movie trailer to earn virtual currency or goods.

Here are four great ways to use social games to promote your brand.

Hit the In-Game Wall

The easiest place to start is the “Offer Wall” inside the game. This is a great option if you’ve got a “low-commitment” offer such as a free trial for your service, a survey or a video you want people to watch.

However, the Offer Wall is somewhat like the bulletin board at the front of a grocery store — it’s easy to post something but it’s hard to stand out. There are frequently 20 or more offers from other advertisers right next to yours. To boost your conversion rates, make sure that your offer text is clear and concise, with explicit instructions on how to complete the offer.

Post Your Ad on an In-Game Billboard

Advertisers are increasingly reaching customers through in-game placements, such as on banners or billboards inside the game or with limited-time deals that are offered to customers when starting a game. These placements can deliver a huge bang for your buck. At my company, we’ve observed that during a live campaign, as many as one out of every three players will view in-game promotions. More importantly, because there is consumer benefit to interacting with the promotion (or purchasing from a retailer), we’ve also seen conversion rates can be hundreds of times higher than for typical search or display advertisements.

Instead of being just one of many advertisers on an offer wall, in-game placements highlight a single advertiser and provide more real estate for brand messaging. Plus, these placements can give advertisers up to five times more exposure to customers than with Offer Wall placements.

When creating in-game placements, be sure to highlight the value your offer provides to players. For example, restaurant.com provides discounts at popular restaurants, so it recently featured an ad with the headline “Dine For Less” in Playfish’s Restaurant City game. Players who clicked on the billboard saw an overlay branded by restaurant.com.

Disclosure: This campaign used the TrialPay platform.

Put Your Name on Branded Virtual Goods

Want to take it up a notch? Consider partnering with a game developer to put your brand name on the virtual goods themselves. MTV recently got in on the game to boost ratings for its 2010 Video Music Awards by giving away virtual replicas of celebrity accessories and fashion items on Mall World, a style and fashion-oriented Facebook application.

This strategy has also paid dividends for brands such as Cascadian Farm, who recently teamed up with game developer Zynga to be the brand behind the game’s organic blueberries crop. Within a few days of launching in the FarmVille Market, Cascadian Farm organic blueberries had been purchased by more than 1 million players for 20 credits each.

Consider branding virtual goods that are complementary to your products. For example, if you are a clothing brand, you can give players the option to customize their virtual persona by providing branded virtual clothing.

Launch Your Own Branded Game

The pinnacle of in-game brand building would be to create and launch your own branded game. This strategy not only gives consumers a fun and memorable way to engage with your brand, but it also enables you to create and sell your own branded virtual goods.

For example, the New York Jets recently launched a Facebook game called Ultimate Fan that lets football fans predict game scores, take quizzes on their knowledge of various NFL teams, allot points to their favorite teams and hold virtual tailgate parties with other fans. The Jets anticipate generating revenue through product placement sponsorships and fans purchasing virtual tailgate items.

You don’t have to be a sports or entertainment company to create your own social game. Reckitt Benckiser, the company behind brands such as Lysol, Clearasil and Woolite, developed its own branded game to allow people to learn more about the company, its brands and its work environment. The game, called poweRBrands, presents players with marketing challenges for various products. As players complete the tasks, they are awarded points to exchange for promotions, different job locations and office upgrades.

If you don’t have the in-house expertise to develop a game yourself, there are multiple agencies that can develop the game for you, such as Arkadium and Avenue Social.

There are so many avenues you can take with advertising when it comes to social gaming. Let us know what brands you think have done a great job of using social games as an advertising opportunity.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

– Why the Social Gaming Biz is Just Heating Up
– Why Games Are the Killer App for Social Networks
– How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph
– 15 Twitter Lists for C-Suite Execs to Follow
– HOW TO: Legally Structure your Startup
– How Coca-Cola Created Its “Happiness Machine” [INTERVIEW]

More About: advertising, business, facebook, farmville, gaming, mall world, poweRBrands, restaurant city, social, social gaming, sorority life, ultimate fan, video games, Zynga

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You can already buy Facebook Credits (the social network’s virtual currency) as gift cards at brick-and-mortar stores. Soon, you will also be able to accrue Facebook Credits by shopping online, as it’s now possible for online retailers to offer the credits as shopping incentives.

Ifeelgoods, an e-commerce promotions provider for online retailers, has integrated Facebook Credits into the online shopping experience, meaning that its clients can use the credits to incentivize customer purchases and other shopping-related behaviors.

Essentially, what this means is that online retailers can now lure you in with the promise of Facebook Credits if you buy that pair of jeans you saved in your online shopping cart. Ifeelgoods will also allow retailers to offer smaller Facebook Credits incentives for e-mail newsletter sign-ups and social behaviors such as voting or Facebook shares.

As Facebook continues to grow in size and its currency becomes more versatile, Facebook Credits may prove to be the perfect compliment to the online shopping experience. Though virtual in nature, the credits are still more tangible than points, and for some customers, may prove to be more desirable than coupons or other rewards.

How would you prefer to be incentivized for your online purchases? Would Facebook Credits sweeten the deal? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of pmsyyz, Flickr

More About: e-commerce, ecommerce, facebook, facebook credits, MARKETING, online retailers, online shopping

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Best Buy is readying 257 of its U.S. stores for a digital loyalty program that rewards customers who walk in and automatically check in via the Shopkick iPhone app and future Andriod app.

The Best Buy Shopkick initiative was announced earlier this month and will award offline shoppers with “kickbucks” — the Shopkick virtual currency — that can be redeemed in-store or converted to Best Buy gift certificates online. Shopkick has been integrated into Best Buy’s point of sale system, allowing customers to give their mobile phone number to the cashier to redeem discounts.

The program is set to go live tomorrow in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, New York City and Chicago markets, with 70 additional stores in Dallas, Miami and Minneapolis set to support the digital rewards program by October 1.

Shopkick’s iPhone app (which also goes live tomorrow) is designed to automatically check shoppers in to retail venues; no manual entry or GPS required. The automatic checkin is powered by small, physical speakers that emit inaudible sound near the entrances of participating stores. Mobile phone microphones are designed to pick up the signal, which will contain a store-specific code, if the Shopkick app is installed and running.

Shopkick’s launch partnerships extend beyond Best Buy and include Macy’s and two additional yet-to-be-disclosed retailers. Shopkick also has a partnership with U.S. mall operator Simon Property Group, owner of 370 shopping centers nationwide. Twenty-five malls in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago are said to be launching with the Shopkick program by the end of the month.

[img credit: Ron Dauphin]

More About: checkins, geolocation, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, shopkick

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The rumors have been confirmed: Google has acquired Jambool, the company behind virtual currency Social Gold.

Jambool made the announcement in an open letter from its founders, Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein. “Our vision is to build world-class products that help developers manage and monetize their virtual economies across the globe,” the founders said in their letter. “When the opportunity arose to join forces with Google to execute against this vision, we couldn’t pass it up. We are thrilled to bring the Social Gold platform to Google’s global users.”

The company also released an FAQ explaining what’s happening next to its users. The thirteen-point Q&A really boils down to one key takeaway, though: Social Gold will continue to operate as it always has and will continue to process payments. In other words, Google will not be shutting down the product anytime soon.

News of the acquisition broke earlier this week. Google was rumored to have paid out $70 million in the deal.

Jambool is best-known for its Social Gold platform, which allows games and virtual worlds to create their own virtual currencies, including in-application payments and virtual economy analytics. The company has raised approximately $6 million in two funding rounds.

More About: acquisition, Google, jambool, social good, virtual currency

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Ravi Mehta is vice president of product for Viximo, where he drives the product strategy for Viximo’s social game distribution platform and helps social networks monetize via social games and virtual goods. For more information on virtual goods, visit his blog, Virtual Goods Insider, and follow him on Twitter.

In 2009, an estimated $2.2 billion in virtual goods were sold to consumers globally, and that number is expected to rocket to over $6 billion by 2013. Although virtual worlds and MMOs have historically driven the growth in virtual goods, today the fastest growing segment is social games.

Social games not only represent a lucrative new revenue channel for social media sites but they also signal a fundamental change in the structure of the social media industry. Social networks can no longer afford to rely solely on advertising revenue—they must master the intricacies of directly monetizing their users via virtual currency, virtual goods, and social games.

The Birth of Social Gaming

Social gaming got its start in mid-2007 with the launch of the Facebook Platform. Since then, Facebook has grown from 27 million unique monthly visitors to over 500 million unique monthly visitors, and over 70% of those visitors engage with applications every month. Last year, social games, one of the most popular forms of social application, generated over $500 million in revenue — the majority of which came from social games on Facebook.

Although Facebook holds the dominant position in the social networking industry, the site makes up less than 30% of worldwide unique visitors to social networks. There are nearly 40 social networks with over 10 million monthly uniques and nearly 150 with over 1 million monthly uniques. The companies that make up the “other 70%” of social networking traffic are just beginning to realize the engagement and monetization benefits of social games. Some sites, such as MyYearbook and Quepasa, have made social gaming a central part of their strategy and are seeing significant growth despite the fact that more and more users are still being drawn to Facebook.

Social Gaming 2.0: Beyond Facebook

When it comes to social games, smaller social networks, paradoxically, often have the benefit of size. Users of multiple social networks tend to split their time between Facebook and another social network. To these users, Facebook is an indispensable communication tool, but the other social network is essentially the local pub: A close knit community woven around shared affinities and experiences.

Social games are the perfect addition to these communities. They provide a lightweight, social form of entertainment that enriches the interaction of a site’s users. As a result, social games on smaller social networks often meet or exceed the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) observed on Facebook. And, unlike advertising, which detracts from the social experience of a site, a successful social games strategy will simultaneously increase a site’s stickiness and significantly increase revenue.

However, implementing a successful social games strategy is not easy; new technology, new skills, and an ongoing commitment are required to succeed. There are three main pillars that anchor a successful strategy: The platform, the content, and the distribution. If any one of these pillars is weak or missing, the true potential of social games and the virtual goods sold within them will remain unrealized.

The Platform

The first step in a successful social gaming strategy is creating an application platform from which social games and virtual goods can be distributed to a site’s users. A great platform must enable social games to be well integrated into a site’s structure, have access to essential social information about a site’s users, and monetize a site’s users with the least possible friction.

It is essential for a site to have a private-label, site-wide virtual currency that is used as the coin of the realm. As Facebook is now discovering with Facebook Credits, a site-wide virtual currency has many benefits: It reduces friction by giving players a standardized form of payment across games, creates a barrier to exit for users that have stored value in the system, and gives sites an efficient and fair way to participate in revenue from third-party apps and games. By using this approach, sites can earn a revenue share of up to 30% for providing virtual currency and distribution to their developers.

Much like real products, virtual goods derive their value both from the utility they provide and the social value associated with owning or giving them. Although virtual goods got their start on social networks in the form of virtual gifts, selling virtual goods within social games has become the dominant business model on social networks. This is because social games can support virtual goods that combine gameplay benefit with social value.

A great example of this is Farmville’s most expensive item: the Unwither Ring. This $45 virtual good is priced far higher than the $1 and $2 virtual gifts sold on many social networks due both to its rarity and the powerful benefit it provides the owner — the ring forever prevents the owner’s crops from withering due to neglect. Even Facebook, which was a pioneer in virtual gifting, has decided to shut down Facebook Gifts in favor of positioning Facebook Credits (which was originally developed for Facebook Gifts) as a currency for social games.

A site’s platform need not be open to all developers, however, as is Facebook’s platform. In fact, for mid-tier social networks, an open platform can spread attention too thin and lead to an unwieldy experience for users. It is far better to have a curated portfolio of content that has been tailored to a site’s particular demographics and can be heavily promoted as a set of core site features. A great example of this is Fubar, a social network marketed as the “first online bar.” The site features a collection of flirtatious social games which are woven into every aspect of the on-site experience, including the login page, profile pages, communication channels and site structure. These apps succeed in attracting and retaining users because of how well they align with the site’s social context and how smoothly they integrate into the overall user experience.

The Content

A site’s content strategy must be focused on developing a portfolio of games that are the best fit for its users. The first step in creating a successful portfolio is to actually create a portfolio. One or two social games are seldom enough to transform a site into a virtual goods powerhouse. The sweet spot is to launch with at least five games and most smaller sites can support twenty or thirty popular games before attention gets spread too thin. Sites should deploy games that:

• Appeal to the site’s core demographic.
• Promote the behaviors that are key to the site’s appeal — whether that is flirting, keeping up with friends, or gathering around a particular theme.
• Have already proven to be engaging.
• Are continually optimized and refreshed to retain users.

Crafting an initial portfolio is often more challenging than expected. Great content takes significant skill and resources to build, and attracting quality developers can be difficult for smaller sites. In addition, it’s important to realize that many games have a limited shelf life, so new content must be continually added in order to keep a site’s social gaming ecosystem vibrant. For these reasons, content acquisition is a critical step that requires ongoing focus and commitment.

The Distribution

It won’t just work to simply add a “Games” tab to a site and call it a day. The goal is to get a site’s users so immersed in social games that some users are willing to pay to get ahead. To do that, social games must be promoted as a core element of the site’s feature set and the site must be proactive about driving traffic to the social games.

Social networks have three methods for driving traffic to social games:

• Premier placement: Not only creating a dedicated section for social games, but also implementing hooks for those games into a site’s features such as profile pages, activity feeds, and the site’s main navigation.
• Ongoing promotion: A site will dedicate high profile real estate to promote game launches, in-game events, and other calls to action that drive traffic into the games.
• Viral notification channels: A site will allow social games to have reasonably unfettered access to a site’s communication channels including user-to-user messaging, invitations, and activity feeds.

A site must use all of these methods extensively in order to build its base of social game DAUs (Daily Active Users), which are key to driving revenue.

Conclusion

When it comes to social games, social networks often make the mistake of copying what Facebook is doing today without recognizing that Facebook has the benefit of massive success on its side and can afford to make decisions that dampen the ubiquity or virality of its platform.

Instead, sites should look to what Facebook did in the early days of its platform to make applications an ubiquitous part of its experience or take lessons from smaller social networks, like MyYearbook and Fubar, which have made virtual goods a central part of their strategy. Those examples will help companies understand how social games can transform the engagement and monetization potential of their social media sites.

More Business Resources From Mashable:

– Cubicle Spy: At Work with David Berkowitz of 360i [PICS]
– How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph
– How Small Businesses Will Use Social Media In The Future
– 11 Free Services for Scheduling Social Media Updates
– 6 Online Tools for Expanding Your Video Strategy

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl

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Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

Google to Acquire Jambool

Following repeated rumors that Google is getting into social gaming and its acquisition of social application company Slide, anonymous sources have disclosed that the search giant is set to purchase virtual monetization platform Jambool for $70 million. The acquisition would give Google control over its Social Gold product, which allows app developers to create virtual currency systems for their games.

Saudi Arabia Lifts Blackberry Ban

Saudia Arabia has lifted its ban of Blackberry services, which took effect August 6 for national security reasons. Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC)’s announced that manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) had conformed to “‘part of the regulatory requirements,” allowing users to continue to access e-mail, web browsing and other services on their devices.

Netflix and Epix Confirm Multi-Year Streaming Deal

Netflix and cable movie channel upstart Epix have confirmed rumors that the two companies had signed a multi-year agreement to stream an “array of new releases and library titles” from Epix’s database, which includes feature films from Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount. Netflix users will have access to these movies beginning September 1.

Further News

• Google and Verizon yesterday released a joint public policy proposal for the open Internet outlining how broadband providers can control how their users receive content.
• Twitter is preparing developers for the rollout of its ad platforms, Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends, within third-party applications. The company has made an update to its application programming interface (API) that gives developers access to two new fields related to the platforms.
• AT&T and Sony are rolling out a new Android smartphone dubbed the Xperia X10. The new device will feature a 4-inch screen, a 1GHz processor, an 8.1-megapixel camera and up to 32GB of memory.
• Gowalla has made its checkin API available to all developers, promising an increase in the quantity and quality of third-party applications.

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

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If you haven’t heard of Jambool, don’t worry.  That name tends to stay in the background.  The company’s existence instead revolves around its Social Gold virtual currency platform, which both LOLapps and Ohai (along with other developers) use.

What’s more, John Zdanowski, the former CFO of Linden Labs, is quoted on the Jambool homepage as saying, "If I were to build the Second Life economy again, I would do it on the Social Gold platform."

So, with Google’s backing, Social Gold could represent a real challenge of sorts to Facebook Credits.

Anyway, to return to the acquisition report, Michael Arrington wrote this afternoon that Google is "buying Jambool and their Social Gold payment product, we’ve heard from multiple sources.  The purchase price is $55 million plus another $15 million -$20 million in an earnout, say our sources."

We’ll update this post (or put up a new one) if/when the transaction is confirmed.

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Originally posted at The Social

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Shopkick is a dream come true for location app junkies: A mobile app that will know your whereabouts and will automatically check you in once you’ve arrived at a given location.

It’s also a great boon for brands. This kind of auto-checkin eliminates cheating and allows companies and brands to target and reward the true faithful with points and real-world rewards.

The service uses Foursquare’s API, and today it announced a partnership with Best Buy and upcoming deals with Macy’s and other retailers. Shopkick’s Signal technology doesn’t require users to check in, and it verifies that the user is actually, physically present in a retail location before unlocking any promotional perks. Users can get access to gift cards, movies, music downloads, gadgets and more with their actions.

One of the rewards for actions, which include walk-ins and item-scans, is a virtual currency called “kickbucks.” These units can be redeemed for Facebook Credits, real-world cash credit at partner stores and more. In addition to kickbucks, users can collect sets of bonuses at different locations. Users can redeem any in-app goodies by giving their mobile number to a store clerk.

In essence, the app attempts to create an interactive, social experience within a shopping trip.

Here’s a demo of how the app works:

The app isn’t available yet but will be coming soon to the iPhone. Generally speaking, we try to avoid covering private beta apps or things our readers can’t immediately use, but we wanted to tell you about Shopkick for two important reasons. The first is that we find auto-checkin technology both fascinating and potentially compromising (particularly for the more forgetful among us who might not remember to turn the app off when we wish to be off the grid). If you’d like to test drive a similar technology from the creators of Shopkick’s retail-focused app, check out CauseWorld, which is available now in the App Store and Android Market.

The second is that this startup has attracted an obscene amount of investor attention over the past few months. The company’s $5 million series A (split between two increments of $2.5 in July 2009 and January 2010) was swiftly followed up $15 million series B last month. Both rounds were led by Kleiner Perkins, and the latter was augmented by funding from Greylock (Series A individual investor Reid Hoffman joined Greylock in 2009). If investors feel an unlaunched mobile app is worth $20 million out of the gate, we feel that app deserves some scrutiny.

Go to Shopkick’s website to sign up for e-mail notifications when the app is released. The iPhone app should be out by the end of August, and an Android application will come out later this fall.

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A RockYou representative wrote in an email to WebProNews, "RockYou . . . have entered into a five year agreement to make Facebook credits the exclusive virtual currency in their social games and applications."

That’s good news for Facebook.  The average person may not find RockYou’s apps quite as addictive as Zynga’s infamous FarmVille, but it’s nonetheless likely that this arrangement will cause quite a few users to give Facebook Credits a try.

As for what RockYou gets out of the deal, its representative explained, "As is standard for all developers on Facebook, RockYou will receive 70 percent of the revenue from Facebook Credits."

Lisa Marino, RockYou’s chief revenue officer, then stated, "As users adopt Credits, there may be a great opportunity for us to increase revenue from both a virtual goods and advertising perspective."

It should be interesting to see if any (or many) other developer outfits try to pursue similar deals with Facebook in response.

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The social gaming giant FarmVille has teamed up with Green Giant to put Farmville Cash coupon stickers on select produce in 4,000 stores nationwide.

You may now begin to notice a sticker with a redeemable code for “5 free farm cash,” the FarmVille currency that is used to manage virtual goods in the game.

In the six-week pilot for the promotion, more than 100,000 in virtual Farm Cash was redeemed using the stickers, which appeared on 25 different Green Giant produce items. The promotion was launched in Target Fresh Grocery and SuperTarget stores first, but was expanded to stores nationwide as a result of the pilot promotion success.

If you’re a hardcore FarmVille fan and want to stock up up some virtual currency, you can locate participating stores here.

FarmVille, which has 65 million users and 20 million who play daily, has perhaps finally reached the mainstream by getting inside our grocery stores and refrigerators. Recently, we learned that Google is reportedly partnering with FarmVille game-maker Zynga to launch a hub for social online games after investing some $100 to $200 million in the company. And one of Zynga’s newest social games, FrontierVille, recently passed the 20 million user mark.

What do you think of the promotion? Will more of our virtual social lives start to cross over to the mainstream?

Here’s an example of what the stickers look like:

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As of August 1, Facebook is closing its Gift Shop, which has brought in approximately $100 million for the social network. Facebook isn’t giving up on the lucrative virtual goods business, however. The social network is positioning itself as an intermediary for selling third party products online.

Less than a year ago, Facebook was rehabbing is Gift Shop, and introduced the idea of Facebook Credits. Rather than paying for virtual gifts — like birthday cakes, troll dolls and campaign buttons — to put on their friends’ Facebook pages, users could purchase credits that could be used for that purpose.

But now the company is doing away with the gift shop all together. According to the Facebook blog:

“Closing the Gift Shop may disappoint many of the people who have given
millions of gifts, but we made the decision after careful thought about
where we need to focus our product development efforts. We’ll be able to focus more on improving and
enhancing products and features that people use every day, such as
Photos, News Feed, Inbox, games, comments, the ‘Like’ button and the
Wall.”

While gifts may be going away, Facebook is hoping to invest more in (and likely receive more from) Facebook credits. More from the company’s blog:

“Out of the Gift Shop’s “gift credits” came the virtual currency,
Facebook Credits, that now makes it easier for people to buy premium
items across the many games and applications on Facebook.”

Credits is a long-term plan for Facebook. The social network allows third parties to use its Credits system, but takes a 30% cut of all transactions. That gives Facebook a pretty big stake in all transactions on the site.

The thing that is still unclear is why Facebook is doing this now. Credits may one day contribute impressive revenue to the site, but not for awhile. Ethan Beard, Facebook’s director of the Facebook Developer Network, recently told VentureBeat that Facebook isn’t going to be calculating profits from Credits for years to come:

“We expect to reinvest profits from Facebook Credits back into the
product for the next several years, so it will bring very little or
marginal profit.”

Considering gifts generally cost $1 (or ten credits) to share on Facebook, the network is currently generating $35 million a year from the shop. That may be a small part of the $835 million in revenue that social games like Farmville will bring in this year, but virtual goods are big business online. Facebook just seems to think that helping to mediate transactions — rather than selling its own products — will be a bigger business for the company in the long run.

So what does this mean? The Facebook Blog provides more details. "The gifts you’ve already received on your Wall will remain visible, and you still will be able to view your sent and received gifts on your gifts page."

"People also can continue to use the many third-party applications on Facebook for giving and receiving gifts, such as Birthday Cards, Hallmark Social Calendar, Pieces of Flair and someecards."

Facebook’s virtual gift shop has generated around $100 since it launch it 2007. Facebook will now focus on its Credits business.

"Out of the Gift Shop’s ‘gift credits’ came the virtual currency, Facebook Credits, that now makes it easier for people to buy premium items across the many games and applications on Facebook," the company said.
 

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Through a partnership with MOL – the online micropayment company that bought Friendster about 7 months ago — Facebook is making its virtual currency, Facebook Credits, available at a large network of retail outlets around Asia and Australia.

MOL has its own virtual currency — MOLPoints. In a few months, Facebook users will be able to buy Facebook Credits using their MOLPoints, trading one virtual currency for another. They’ll also be able to buy Facebook Credits outright at certain locations.

MOLPoints bought at half a million outlets throughout Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand can be used to purchase Facebook Credits.

At some stores in some countries, users will be able to buy co-branded gift cards redeemable for Facebook Credits. You’ll also see Facebook Credits sold at MOL’s online banks, in Internet cafes and at 7-Eleven stores.

We’re told by a Facebook rep that in these parts of the world, many consumers use prepaid cards instead of credit cards for online purchases; the MOL partnership will make it much simpler for this group of people to buy and spend Facebook Credits, creating more invested users in Asia and more profits for the social network, itself.

Vaughan Smith is Facebook’s director of business and corporate development. In a press release, he stated, “We’re investing in the long-term future of Facebook Credits, and we view this agreement as a major opportunity to broaden the availability of a simple, unified currency that can be used in games and applications across Facebook.”

Facebook Credits have already been shown to be a solid revenue stream for this site. And the mobile- and web-connected millions in these countries could provide a significant boost to this program if the MOL partnership takes off.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Facebook should work out more offline Credits-purchasing deals in the U.S., too? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

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Note: this doesn’t just mean that users are presented with a greater number of ways (mobile billing, prepaid debit cards, etc.) to fork over cash – although that’s part of it.  Offerpal, which specializes in virtual currency, has an "alternative payment engine" that can involve more cost-effective options.

An announcement concerning this partnership explained that Offerpal deals in "[a] complete suite of alternative payment options, including surveys, videos, shopping rewards, tasks and other methods of acquiring virtual currency for free."

Developers will now be able to offer users "[t]housands of free trials, discounts, promotions and other currency-based advertising offers from big brands such as Netflix, Disney, Discover Card, New York Times, DirecTV and many others," too.

That’s an important development, considering how many people spend hours digging through forums and coupon sites for the sake of sniffing out such transactions.  If they now spend a little more time with apps and games developed using the Yahoo Application Platform, developers, Yahoo, and Offerpal will score a significant win.

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Gay social network Fabulis is getting a quarter of a million dollars toward its seed round from David Bohnett, who founded GeoCities at the tender age of 16. This brings the network’s total seed money to $825,000, VentureBeat reports.

Bohnett’s venture capital firm, Baroda Ventures, typically backs early-stage new and social media companies, including an ad platform and online video network, as well as e-commerce and e-ticketing websites. The majority of these investments have clear revenue models in place and Fabulis is no different in that respect.

This site, which features a quick and painless Facebook integration for signup, helps gay guys figure out where to go, what to do, who to meet and more. It’s not exclusive to gay men — or “out” gays, as the case may be — and allows “friends of gay guys” to sign up for the site and get in on the fun as well. Users can tag themselves in any way they choose — a nice change from the more heteronormative websites such as Facebook or MySpace, which offer only the most bipolar of gender and sexual preference identifiers.

The interface is gorgeous too, with Vimeo-reminiscent features that scream “accessible” and “intuitive.” In addition to self-tagging, which lets you easily find others who identify themselves in the same way, the site also features an anonymous Q&A function… sound familiar? You can add photos and share travel/outing plans on the site, too.

Event planning via Fabulis is a bit like Facebook Events, but with a prettier interface. You can RSVP, get details and directions, and see who else is attending from the site. And each event has a “Buzz” section consisting of users’ comments on the event.

The site features a virtual currency/points system, “Fabulis Bits,” which can be earned through site participation or partner offers; they can also be bought outright. Bits can be spent when asking other users questions and setting a “price” for your profile’s Q&A is an option for all users. Additionally, the site has special, timed offers and sweepstakes, presumably to create urgency around special deals for travel and other purchases.

Finally, Fabulis has an asymmetric friendship model: You can “follow” people who don’t follow you back, just like Twitter. And Fabulis also has messaging with autocomplete, so you can keep in touch with all your contacts without having to navigate around the site too much.

All in all, this new website has grabbed some of the best elements from incredibly beautiful, successful and viral web applications and given them a treatment that is, well, fabulous. Startups, if you want to see a new, niche network done right, get over to Fabulis and start taking notes.

And to the Fabulis founders, we want to ask: When will you roll out a site for the sisters? Lesbians and other queer women should get a Fabulis of their own — and we think advertisers and corporate partners would agree with us on this.

The site still has a few bugs scampering around, but Fabulis uses Get Satisfaction for users to report issues or file complaints. We encourage you to give the site a try and let us know what you think about it in the comments.

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Platogo says the Buxter app will help game developers monetize their apps.

“Research from the Inside Virtual Goods Report shows that the market for games and gifts within social networks will be worth $835m by the end of this year,” said Jakob Sommerhuber, CEO, Platogo

“For any business operating within Facebook this is a potentially huge market. The problem until now has been how to make it easy for users to make payments – to buy virtual goods within games, for example. Buxter has solved that problem in a stroke.”

Buxter, launched earlier in 2010 by payments company ClickandBuy, is the first application on Facebook that allows users to send and request real currency.

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"As part of this announcement, Facebook Credits will be the exclusive in-game virtual currency around the world for current and future CrowdStar games," a representative for CrowdStar tells WebProNews. "Since CrowdStar started using Facebook Credits in its games in December 2009, its revenue earned per customer has increased almost 50 percent, helping fuel CrowdStar’s growth."

"We’re delighted to be working with Facebook for the long term, and we’re very optimistic about the benefits Facebook Credits brings to fans of CrowdStar games and the entire social gaming ecosystem," says CrowdStar CEO Niren Hiro.. "As more developers adopt Credits, its ease of use across applications will continue to attract more paying customers and increase profits."

"CrowdStar has been a valued and important partner in the testing and development of Facebook Credits, and we’re pleased that our companies have formalized our commitment to work together," adds Dan Rose, VP of partnerships and platform marketing at Facebook. "We’re committed to building the best social games platform in the world on Facebook for users and developers, and Facebook Credits is an important part of our strategy."

Facebook has put an increasingly amount of emphasis on Facebook Credits lately, and it is very likely that credits will become a very significant part of Facebook’s future on the web.

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SupersonicAds operates a monetization tool for virtual currency in social applications and game communities.

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Developers can cross promote their own applications among Papaya’s users, accessing features such as news feed, invitation, notification, profiles, internal mails, chatrooms, IM support, leaderboards and an avatar system. Developers can also leverage a shared virtual currency system for users to purchase through virtual goods in the ecosystem more easily.

“As a former Google product manager, I’ve always believed the best way to serve users and the market is to create open technologies and platforms, and this has been PapayaMobile’s focus. Our release of Social SDK and Offer SDK will provide benefit and added growth to the Android ecosystem,” said Si Shen, CEO of PapayaMobile.

“The company is already profitable, and with our recent $4M series A funding from DCM, we know we will successfully enable the next generation of social gaming applications. Someday, we hope to see ‘mobile Zynga’ and ‘mobile Playfish’ on Papaya.”

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Social gaming has already become a multi-billion dollar industry. Its biggest player, FarmVille creator Zynga, is already worth over $4 billion, and recent estimates say that social gaming will generate over $1 billion in revenue this year.

Which people are sending the massive amounts of money that’s fueling this market, though? Who’s buying all of those virtual cows and magic armors while completing countless offers?

Virtual currency platform Social Gold performed a four month study in order to find out. The results, which are nicely summed up in the two infographics included below, demonstrate several emerging trends in social gaming:

– 7% of users that make a virtual goods purchase are still buying them after four months. Still, the vast majority of people never make a purchase in any game that they play.

- The best performing social games are able to get 41% of users to make a repeat purchase.

- U.S. and European users spend more on social games than Asian users — far more. The average north american spent $74, while the average Asian player only spent $30 on virtual goods.

- However, when it comes to users that make more than one purchase, Latin American users come out on top, spending an average of $300 in a four month period.

There are a lot of other interesting gems hidden in these two infographics. Click on the images for full-sized versions of the infographics, and then let us know what you think of the data in the comments.

Social Gaming Monetization by User Segment

Social Gaming Monitization by Region

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Highlights include:

*Participating developers experienced a more than 3x increase in offer-based advertising revenue versus normal daily revenue

*93% of the users who completed ad offers through the in-game promotions were new users who had never taken part in an offer in that game before

*Within the first week after completing an in-game promotional offer, over 10% of these newly monetized users had returned to fill out another offer or make a direct payment

*The effective CPM rate was $2.03, compared to typical CPM rates in the range of $0.10 to $1.00

“Traditional ‘offerwalls’ remain the most effective foundation for developers to monetize their virtual currency, but only about 10% of a game’s audience tends to find them,” said Mihir Shah, Chief Revenue Officer of Offerpal Media.

“In-game promotional campaigns allow our game developers to reach a broader audience, do much more interesting user and demographic targeting, and get best-in-industry payouts based on higher volumes and contextual relevance from major advertisers.”

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