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How do Facebook "gift credits" work?How does Facebook make money, Dave? I mean, seems like every time I log in there are new applications from third parties and more friends to connect with, but I never pay a nickel. In fact, the only place I've ever bumped into a request for payment is when I want to send someone a "gift", but that's all based on "facebook credits"? What's the scoop? You ask one of the great questions of the "Web 2.0" world: in an online universe where everything seems to be migrating to the free mark, how on Earth does anyone actually make any money (other than the overpriced so-called "social media gurus", that is :-) ? In Facebook's case, you're right that most everything seems to be free, but what Facebook has is attention. Unlike so many other services that compete for eyeballs, Facebook is a world unto itself and has an extraordinarily busy online community that numbers in the hundreds of millions. That means that companies who want to get in front of those social media leaders are highly motivated to pay whatever they must to gain visibility. When you're logged in to Facebook, it's the ads, the promotional apps, that you should be paying attention to, because that's the main revenue stream for the Facebook organization at this point. Nonetheless, as you say, there are also these little graphical gift widgets you can send people too, and I would be unsurprised to find that's a meaningful revenue stream. After all, cell phone ringtones are a multi-billion-dollar market, and that's at $0.99 per. With just about 1000 Facebook friends, not a day goes by that I don't have a few pals with birthdays, and when I researched this question, it turned out to be the day before my friend and colleague Deborah Micek had her birthday. So I bought her a cupcake to illustrate how the gift credit currency system works on Facebook too. To start out, you should already know that a few screen scrolls down, on the right side, is a list of people's birthdays on your Facebook home page: ![]() I clicked on her name and it takes me straight to her Wall, making it easy to wish her a happy birthday. More importantly, though, it also shows me some of the more popular gifts available to send: ![]() The question, of course, is what's the conversion rate between Facebook "Credits" and actual money? Turns out it's 10:1, so each credit costs you $0.10. Move your cursor over the item you want to send and it tells you what it is (in case you don't understand the graphic): ![]() Who wouldn't like a Yummy Cupcake for their birthday? I click on it and for the first time find out how much real money it's going to cost to send this graphic: ![]() What the heck, let's spend a dollar brightening up Deborah's special day! I click on "Continue" and... ![]() Credit card payment information entered (but not shared here, for obvious reasons!) and I click on "Complete Purchase": ![]() A few more seconds pass, then: ![]() Huzzah! Now on her Wall, Deborah - and every one else who is friends with her - sees: ![]() Notice the glitch, btw: the message I had typed in earlier that I wanted associated with the gift has vanished, so I am forced to leave it as a comment. Kind of awkward, it'd be nice to be able to associate a message directly with the gift, but apparently that's not how it works. Anyway, now you know a bit about how Facebook makes money off of its user community and how you can send cupcakes, beer, martinis, and much more to your friends on Facebook if you're willing to drop a buck or two on buying some Facebook credits. I'd also like to let you know that I have quite a bit of Facebook help here on the site and that I also have an Ask Dave Taylor Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join.
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Categorized:
Facebook Help
(Article 9109,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: currency, facebook, facebook gifts, facebook help, facebook wall Previous: What MacBook should I get for a trip to Africa? Next: How can I block someone in Google Chat/Gtalk? Reader Comments To Date: 7mary said, on March 16, 2010 1:16 PM:
Hi, when you purchase facebook credits you can check to see how many credits you have once you have paid by your credit card, but is there a page where you can check all the payments made to facebook, how much you paid on your credit card and for how many credits, date you paid for credits, just so that you can check this against what appears on your bank statement later on, as i cannot find any where on facebook were i can check when i paid for credits, how much i paid, and when i paid for them on my credit card, just to make sure that there is no mistakes, as mistakes can happen, and it would be nice to know that you can keep an eye on what you have spent on facebook and it tallys with your bank statement, is there a page that keeps a copy of what, and when you purchased these credits and more importantly when you bourght them, as i cannot find such a page, all it tells me is how many credits i have left, and do i want to buy more, but i want to know if the credits i purchased, date ect, are the same as when i go and check this against my bank statement, is there such a place i can go and check this out? do facebook keep a record of what i have spent, and if so can you tell me how i can go and check what i have spent on my facebooks credits so that i can take a copy and then check it against my bank statement..thanks for any help in regard tothis matter... tartine said, on May 31, 2010 10:48 PM:
Hey Dave, I just bought an e-card for a friend, was charged via PayPal & some credits were taken off, however, the gift is not on her page at all! And there's no support or customer service number I could contact! What should I do? linda hubbard said, on July 28, 2010 7:23 AM:
I clicked on 2 friends today saying if I played bejeweled blitz I would receive 5 fb credits, did not happen. this is one of the reasons I do not play but 1 game on fb. pat ellis said, on August 1, 2010 10:49 AM:
fb stated i won 125 fb creits, after i filled in the on line survey. i id not recieve my credits why???????????????????? Natalie said, on August 11, 2010 7:49 PM:
Hi! I was wondering if you can actually send your Facebook credits to someone else on Facebook without purchasing anything. Mandy said, on August 17, 2010 1:54 PM:
Does facebook have a record of individual facebook credit purchases?
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Thanks for this explanation! I was going to buy my old friend a bottle of bubbly, and was confused as to whether or not Facebook was actually going to mail her a bottle or not!!!! :) hahaha lol