If you’re not into buying virtual add-ons for Facebook games, chances are you won’t have used Facebook Credits. But the social network’s virtual currency has today made its first tentative steps towards becoming the way to pay for everything on the internet. For the first time, the currency is available outside of the confines of Zuckerberg’s walled garden, with Facebook announcing a tie-up with casual gaming site GameHouse.com.
At first, this might look like a piffling event in the wider picture of Facebook’s ever-growing dominance of over 800 million peoples lives. But be under no illusion, this marks the start of something huge.
Slowly, but surely, trust in Facebook is growing. Privacy issues still remain, although the site has managed to make its settings much more transparent and easier to get to grips with. One surefire sign of this is the fact that people are willing to spend money within Facebook. Fashion etailer ASOS has a secure store available on the site and O2 allows users to top up their phones too. Add in the fact that Facebook Credits now works on over 650 games and apps and it’s hard to see past the idea that creating a universal digital currency, available across the internet, isn’t something at the top of the agenda for Facebook.
Of course, digital currencies are not new. Beenz tried and failed during the first dotcom boom, while Bitcoin’s p2p offering is making waves, even if the fact it can’t be traced throws up some serious worries about what the currency is being used for. Facebook, on the other hand, is at a huge advantage in that it already has close to a billion users, with retailers able to target them effectively through ads based around their interests.
Having a prepaid solution like Facebook Credits working across the entire web would make paying for goods even easier than it already is. Facebook is already hugely popular and the first destination for many users when they first fire up their PC: imagine just sorting credits and finances there, rather than having to head to other sites to sort out money before spending it. This is Zuckerberg’s dream writ large: everyone using Facebook (or at least Facebook services) to conduct all of their online affairs.
The implementations are endless. Not just as a PayPal or credit card alternative, but as a money-lending service. This could work for everything from micro-loans from companies who use the social network to simply lending your best mate a tenner.
Yes, today’s news is a small step. And yes, it focuses on games. But the fact is it shows a branching out that cannot be ignored. Expect to see Facebook Credits working on a string of different sites in 2012, and not just to pay for virtual goods either. This has the makings of being one of the decade’s biggest tech stories.
