
In bid for international money, Facebook takes gifts off dollar standard - ashishk
http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2008/11/03/03venturebeat-in-bid-for-international-money-facebook-take-99928.html
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jrockway
"Virtual money" always annoys me. I have to have Wii points to buy a Wii game.
I have to have Microsoft points to buy an Xbox game. I don't want to keep my
money tied up in these useless virtual currencies. Just charge my credit card
$5 when I download a game and be done with it.

Same for Facebook. Just charge me what the "item" "costs". Making it difficult
to buy a worthless item is not a good way to make money. Making it easy _is_.

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eru
I would be more cautious. Sometimes hard access is the value. After all the
marginal cost of those 'worthless items' is zero anyway.

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teej
The issue with virtual goods is that most people don't "get it". "Why would
you spend $1 on a stupid picture?". The business model differs too much from
the produce. => market. => sell. people are used to. It's all a matter of
psychology and sociology and until people realize that enough to execute on
it, I don't plan on having competition.

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jgrahamc
Virtual gifts in Facebook are an example of the "How is this software going to
get me laid?" question posed by JWZ( _). You'd spend $1 on a stupid picture
because you imagine some desired outcome. This is the same reason people buy
flowers for other people, and in general the same reason people buy almost
anything. The fact that the cost of making a virtual flower is entirely
irrelevant.

(_) <http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html>

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byrneseyeview
_This revenue could get into the nine figures next year, Justin Smith of the
blog Inside Facebook calculates, based on various estimates he tells me he’s
heard. Smith is the head product manager at social network application company
Watercooler, and generally has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening
around Facebook. Combined with what Facebook has told me, his number sounds
quite plausible._

This kind of language used to show up when bloggers cited people in the
mainstream media, or well-known consultants. It's interesting that, when they
write about startups, the _New York Times_ has to say "Trust me -- I heard
this from a guy who is _completely_ legit."

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teej
Regardless of the validity of his revenue claim, Justin is a pretty nice guy.

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DanielBMarkham
_This revenue could get into the nine figures next year_

I did a lot of research last year on virtual economies. I really, really wish
I had been able to put this together into a startup. This stuff rocks.

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kirse
You know people have it good when they're siphoning money into virtual space
where it's virtually worthless.

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DanielBMarkham
Same as watching a movie at a theater. You pay your money and two hours later
all you have is the memory of a feeling.

