Facebook set to dominate micro-payments?

[Bimmerhead]

An interesting article that talks about Facebook's domination over it's app developers and how it is expected they will go from zero to $1 billion in the next 6 months.  All while taking a 30% cut.

Zynga is already doing $1 million/day in virtual currency transactions.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/facebooks-virtual-currency-takeover-hints-at-micro-payment-battle/

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[BrightAnarchist]

An interesting article that talks about Facebook's domination over it's app developers and how it is expected they will go from zero to $1 billion in the next 6 months.  All while taking a 30% cut.

Zynga is already doing $1 million/day in virtual currency transactions.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/facebooks-virtual-currency-takeover-hints-at-micro-payment-battle/

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

[jgarzik]

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

Doesn't FB force its new app developers to use FB points (their microcurrency)?

[Bimmerhead]

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

Doesn't FB force its new app developers to use FB points (their microcurrency)?

I don't think they force small developers, but I think they may be forcing big developers like Zynga.

I guess the reason a developer would cave to Facebook's demand of 30% is to gain access to a market of more than 500 million people.

Facebook is quickly becoming the de facto internet for some segments of society.  I just read how teen girls spend more time on Facebook than on the rest of the web combined.

[FreeMoney]

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

Doesn't FB force its new app developers to use FB points (their microcurrency)?

I don't think they force small developers, but I think they may be forcing big developers like Zynga.

I guess the reason a developer would cave to Facebook's demand of 30% is to gain access to a market of more than 500 million people.

Facebook is quickly becoming the de facto internet for some segments of society.  I just read how teen girls spend more time on Facebook than on the rest of the web combined.

I dunno, I never go on FB, but I have no problem finding "teen girls" on the internet.

[bober182]

The Russian ads lie.

[Anonymous]

To some people facebook is the internet and the operating system!

The fbi and cia loves it im sure that they dont need search warrants and that people give them all the info. The fact the cia's investment arm owns a lot of shares in facebook says a lot. To them facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Its not that much of a stretch for them to start bending laws to benefit the company and target competing systems by using the power of the state. One thing that annoys me is that they went after microsoft for unfair competition and monopolistic anti competitive behaviour yet facebook does many of the same things. Its pretty clear why the spooks support it.

[grondilu]

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

Because some people are that dumb.

[Bimmerhead]

Why the heck would you use Facebook's currency that they tax at 30% when you could use Bitcoin??

Because some people are that dumb.

70% of something is still more than 100% of nothing.

Zynga is a $5 billion company, all because of 3 years on Facebook.

Remember "My Aquarium" way back in 2007?  The developer of that was making $3,000/day selling virtual fish.  It's fine not to like Facebook, but it is where the micropayment action is.

[Bruce Wagner]

How can we make Bitcoin get a slice of that action?

Any way to develop a bitcoin micropayment app for facebook?

[kiba]

How can we make Bitcoin get a slice of that action?

Any way to develop a bitcoin micropayment app for facebook?

I prefer killing facebook rather than getting a pie of facebook.

[Bruce Wagner]

    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/diaspora-open-facebook-alternative-releases-code  and  http://www.joindiaspora.com

[Bimmerhead]

How can we make Bitcoin get a slice of that action?

Any way to develop a bitcoin micropayment app for facebook?

There is a discussion on that idea here Bruce:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1065.msg13159#msg13159

  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/diaspora-open-facebook-alternative-releases-code  and  http://www.joindiaspora.com

I think the most interesting part of that article is where it says they raised $200,000 at kickstarter.com

Wow, the various bitcoin promotion ideas floating around on this forum could sure benefit from a cash infusion.  Has anyone here ever used kickstarter.com to raise money for a venture?

[Bruce Wagner]

Wow, the various bitcoin promotion ideas floating around on this forum could sure benefit from a cash infusion.  Has anyone here ever used kickstarter.com to raise money for a venture?

That's one of the best ideas I've heard so far....    Which project exactly... would be the real KILLER APP that could potentially simultaneously knock PayPal and/or Mastercard/Visa and/or Western Union and/or other micropayment systems.... out of their monopoly positions...  if the idea had a starter backing of, say, $200,000......?

It should be one that the masses of public REALLY REALLY long for...  (like an open source privacy centric facebook alternative is...).

Perhaps the pitch would be:      The Free PayPal Alternative  (which also happens to be free open source) 

[genjix]

I have some friends working on free(dom) federated social networking software

http://n-1.cc/

[Bimmerhead]

Wow, the various bitcoin promotion ideas floating around on this forum could sure benefit from a cash infusion.  Has anyone here ever used kickstarter.com to raise money for a venture?

That's one of the best ideas I've heard so far....    Which project exactly... would be the real KILLER APP that could potentially simultaneously knock PayPal and/or Mastercard/Visa and/or Western Union and/or other micropayment systems.... out of their monopoly positions...  if the idea had a starter backing of, say, $200,000......?

It should be one that the masses of public REALLY REALLY long for...  (like an open source privacy centric facebook alternative is...).

Perhaps the pitch would be:      The Free PayPal Alternative  (which also happens to be free open source) 

Well it's not the 'killer app', but I think this is an idea that might fly on kickerstarter:

A microstock photo exchange site where users pay in bitcoin.  Let's call it BitPics for short.

Currently, stock photo sites charge between 40% and 80% (!) of selling price for photographers to list their photos for sale.  I don't know why the commissions are so large, but it sure seems like a market niche ripe for some efficiencies.  I would speculate that their two largest costs are bandwidth (shuffling 3 Mb photos up and down the pipe all day) and transaction fees to PayPal.

BitPics would reduce these costs in two ways: use bitcoin for transactions, and instead of hosting the photos locally, the exchange would only serve to display the photos.  The photographer would have to find his own host (ex: OpenDrive).

Assuming my speculations are reasonable, these reduced costs might allow BitPics to charge only 5% exchange fees.  Any profits could be returned to the participants as if they were part of a co-operative.

Such a site shouldn't need $200,000 for the technical requirements.  I'm going to take a wild guess and throw out $10,000 for that, if it's based on open source stuff already on the market.  Add another $30,000 for promotion and marketing to spread the word in the right communities and maybe it would fly.

[Bruce Wagner]

Well it's not the 'killer app', but I think this is an idea that might fly on kickerstarter:

It may not the THE number one killer app...   But it sounds like a great idea.   You should definitely do it!

[Anonymous]

Bitcoin itself is the killer app. 

[tomdetroit]

hi everyone

yes i can agree.. these are just unbelievable sick numbers.. where does all the money come from??
and what will be the future of social networks?? there will be a "new" facebook soon.. i still remember when myspace
was the market leader a few years ago..  now its all about facebook...