Comments on: Facebook Testing Virtual Gifts

By: Goodbye Atoms, Hello Bits « Virtual Goods Insider

Goodbye Atoms, Hello Bits « Virtual Goods Insider — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:50:34 +0000

[...] 18, 2008 in Social Networking, Virtual Gifts, Virtual Goods Exactly a year ago, Facebook started testing virtual gifts. Reaction to Facebook’s foray into virtual gifting was mostly negative, sometimes violently [...]

By: Goodbye Atoms, Hello Bits « Virtual Goods Insider

Goodbye Atoms, Hello Bits « Virtual Goods Insider — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:32:59 +0000

[...] 18, 2008 in Uncategorized Exactly a year ago, Facebook started testing virtual gifts. Reaction to Facebook’s foray into virtual gifting was mostly negative, sometimes violently [...]

By: A Facebook Christmas « beanworks

A Facebook Christmas « beanworks — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:54:31 +0000

[...] of most popular product categories, but what’s not on the list may be in a five years: Virtual gifts given on sites like Facebook. At a dollar each, they’re a bargain that enable you to [...]

By: Buy A Virtual Gift And Fight Malaria teasered @ Feed UP !!

Buy A Virtual Gift And Fight Malaria teasered @ Feed UP !! — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:06:17 +0000

[...] phenomenon to increase participation even further: virtual gifts. Facebook has been selling them since February this year. A number of unofficial virtual gift applications created by third parties have also [...]

By: Fleuriste virtuel « Nouveau Monde

Fleuriste virtuel « Nouveau Monde — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:47:03 +0000

[...] et les empêcher de faner. Lire l’article “Interflora virtuel” de TechCrunch, les Objets virtuels dans Facebook, et l’article de Susan [...]

By: Chun-Ting Chen’s Blog » 美國青少年最愛的網站：Facebook

Chun-Ting Chen’s Blog » 美國青少年最愛的網站：Facebook — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:53:32 +0000

[...] 30 名，不過卻深得大學生的熱愛。記得上個月的時候，Facebook 開始經營虛擬禮物的市場，這幾天登入我的 Facebook [...]

By: Babe Vs Babe Blog

Babe Vs Babe Blog — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:38:26 +0000

Virtual gifts - why they just might work…

James Hong, one of the founders of HotOrNot.com, emailed GigaOM yesterday to announce that they are doing away with paid subscriptions to their “Meet Me” dating site. Instead, they’re turning to a mostly ad-based revenue model, as we…

By: B. Sharp

B. Sharp — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 02:05:47 +0000

This idea really did take off running. I gave away the first free gift then I saw two other people had sent me gifts and I had to reciprocate and before I knew it I spent two dollars in 15 seconds when I didn’t plan on spending any. Even girls were spending money on them. It was crazy! So it will be a great revenue generator for Facebook.

By: Levi

Levi — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:11:45 +0000

“this will be huge with the masses who spend $100’s per month on texting (sms) and name compatability with their boyfriends horoscopes etc etc”

That’s what I was thinking. A number of kids (or their parents) have disposable income and they are so used to spending it for cheesy, useless things. Facebook is just tapping into the cheesy, useless things market

By: The Razor » Facebook Starts Selling Virtual Items

The Razor » Facebook Starts Selling Virtual Items — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 04:44:01 +0000

[...] [via TechCrunch] [...]

By: April

April — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:58:53 +0000

I have already given 8 gifts, including my one freebie. Mainly I like it because it is fun and the money goes to Breast Cancer. Not sure how many I will buy when the money no longer goes to charity. It does give your friends a warm fuzzy though when they realize you spent a buck on a useless icon just for them! I want someone to buy me some! This is exactly why this is going to work!

By: billo

billo — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:25:37 +0000

I’m going to call out everyone in this thread who says the “gifts won’t work.” True, they may not appeal to YOU Mr/Mrs Diehard Techcrunch… but that doesn’t mean any of the other 22 million facebook devoted won’t give them a go.

I mean people are dropping 20 bucks a month on ringtones and these things are pretty effin cute. cheaper than a card…

BILLO

By: http://www.blogsaic.com/

http://www.blogsaic.com/ — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:17:32 +0000

this is it. this is the zenith of valueless ness on the net

this will be huge with the masses who spend $100’s per month on texting (sms) and name compatability with their boyfriends horoscopes etc etc

this is most likely the exact opposite of what Tim Burners Lee was trying to create…

who ever thought you would pay to ‘give’ and icon

but it is brilliant…

By: jda

jda — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:25:46 +0000

and in real news… facebook signed an agreement with Jobster, which seems to have more long term potential than almost anything they’ve done. but.. no stupid icons.

http://gigaom.com/2007/01/29/j.....-facebook/

By: will

will — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:02:21 +0000

someone needs to give the hotOrNot boys some credit for popularizing virtual gifting . . .

By: Don

Don — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:51:15 +0000

It’ll def. work. It might not be very popular, but it will work. I already have girls asking me to send them the “cute lil’ icon gifts”!!!

By: thesubjective

thesubjective — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:57:48 +0000

A test in preparation for an econoomy of widgets?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:18:15 +0000

This is not stupid and it’s going to be a huge hit. I can’t believe MySpace hasn’t implemented this yet.

By: sad

sad — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:31:33 +0000

WTF?

By: drew olanoff

drew olanoff — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:09:34 +0000

i think someone here nailed it. “it’s stupid enough to work”

By: Shambhu

Shambhu — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:27:39 +0000

I don’t know what “poking” is, but I can think of two reasons why this may work.

If the “wall” is visible, then displaying your gifts denotes status. People can then decide whether to be ostentatious or demure in displaying their gifts. In that sense, I think the options on the screenshot are wrong. The recipient should decide what, where and how long to display those gifts.

Secondly (warning: possibly pretentious): Token gift-giving is a required part of socializing in many situations. This could test whether that norm would transfer to online social networks. You can already trade favors (links?) which is akin to bartering. These gifts could be more like, but not as crass as, currency — more efficient.

By: 11

11 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:49:54 +0000

test

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:43:24 +0000

For the facebook users opposed to paying for virtual gifts, go ahead and join the group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2234798060

By: Doug K

Doug K — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:43:01 +0000

Won’t it be funny if people send private I love you gifts to members they don’t know that display on the page… making real boyfriends/girlfriends jealous. Could see more killer for hire cases like the mySpace one a while back!

By: Alexa

Alexa — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:29:20 +0000

I’m sure this will be hugely successful. There is a similar system on an existing social network site (www.parano.be) which is used by many French-speaking young people all over the world. Visitors accrue virtual currency according to the amount of time they are logged into the site. You exchange gifts with other users on the site. It’s a kind of social currency to facilitate building relationships and friendships with others on the platform.