Yesterday, I received 20 free Facebook credits. How nice of them to give me this $1.50 value gift, without my even asking. Reports from a lot of people have confirmed that several games are giving away free Facebook credits to their users.
This of course is one of several marketing pushes being made by Facebook to introduce credits to the masses. By showing everyone how easy it is to add credits and then use them in any game that supports them (all major games already do and any upcoming game that is released is certain to as well), they will create hundreds of thousands of new customers.
The virtual currency business already saw a huge boom in 2009 with the likes of Offer Pal, Super Rewards and Peanut Labs being the big names, allowing users to purchase in-game currency either directly through PayPal transactions or by filling out affiliate offers. This lead to the infamous Scamville debacle which tarnished Offer Pal’s reputation severely, ultimately leading to a complete re-vamp of the upper management at the company. Now virtual currency is set to have it’s best year yet with Facebook crossing the 500 million users mark, games reporting a huge increase in daily traffic and virtual currency stronger and more convenient than ever.
With Facebook Credits comes a credible face (excuse the pun) to the virtual currency business. People feel far more secure (ironically) trust Facebook and making a payment directly to them rather than a third party company that may or not still be in business tomorrow after having taken your money.
So what did I do with my 20 credits? Nothing yet, but I am tempted to get that awesome shiny new dance floor for my groovin’ club in Nightclub city.
