Visa Buys Virtual Goods Monetization Platform PlaySpan For $190 Million In Cash. PlaySpan, a virtual goods monetization platform, has been acquired by Visa. According to the release, Visa will pay $190 million in cash for the company, plus additional payouts for performance milestones. The deal comes nearly a year after Visa spent a whopping $2 billion on e-payment company CyberSource. Visa says that the acquisition of PlaySpan complements the CyberSource deal and will extend the company’s presence in digital and mobile commerce. This is a big exit for PlaySpan, which has raised a total of $46 million in funding since its launch four years ago. PlaySpan has been growing like a weed, striking partnerships with a number of social network, gaming and media companies, including Viacom, Disney, Facebook, Ubisoft, and Sanrio. PlaySpan’s flagship product UltimatePay is a ‘Monetization as a Service’ platform for apps, games, videos and digital goods. Visa says that ecommerce sales, which reached an estimated $948 billion, are a big growth area for the company.
Facebook’s Big Credits Push Shows Itself in CityVille, Other Top Social Games. Over the past year, Facebook has steadily worked to make Credits the only payments option on its platform, but has given few specifics details on what it’s doing during the transition. Below, we take a fresh look at Facebook, its top developers and the platform providers to help clear up where Credits will go in 2011. Although it has never said so explicitly and publicly, Facebook has required, one by one, all major developers to sign five-year agreements agreeing to use Credits exclusively. That’s instead of the direct credit card payments, third-party offer walls, game cards, and other payment options that have until now been the main ways to buy virtual currency for social games and apps on the platform. Facebook’s initial plan was to fully transition to Credits by the end of 2010, but the results might not be obvious today.
For example, the two largest games on the platform — CityVille and FarmVille — show an offer wall, game cards, and a variety of other non-Credits payment methods. Zynga targets Indian gaming market with new in-game payment methods. 10 January '11, 12:31pm Follow Social gaming company Zynga, the company best known for games such as Mafia Wars and Farmville, is looking to develop its interests in the Indian market by offering customers a variety of new payment options that include game cards, internet banking and SMS payments.
The company, which currently offers in-game payments via credit card or PayPal, allows customers to buy virtual currency to acquire premium items within its games, aims to roll-out its new payment options in the first half of 2011. Closing the Gift Shop: Facebook Redefines Credits. We know some of you may be saddened by the news of Facebook closing down its Gift Shop, but we have just one thing to say: good riddance to virtual junk. Whether it's a box of chocolates you can't actually taste or a teddy bear you can't squeeze, you'll have to satiate all your virtual cravings over the coming weeks, because come August 1, these imaginary offerings will be no more.
The one question everyone is asking, however, is why would Facebook close down a venture that sells imaginary, low-to-no-overhead items for real-world money? Facebook's product manager for games and credits Jared Morgenstern wrote in a blog post that "closing the Gift Shop may disappoint many of the people who have given millions of gifts, but we made the decision after careful thought about where we need to focus our product development efforts. All Facebook's Nick O'Neill suggests Facebook is simply getting serious about the virtual goods market.
Ifeelgoods Aims To Help Retailers Replace Traditional Incentives With Virtual Goods. Here’s an interesting one: a new startup aims to help retailers replace traditional promotions and incentives such as coupons and discounts with virtual goods and virtual currencies for a wide range of social games and networks. The American/French company, dubbed Ifeelgoods, is launching today. Ifeelgoods was formed by e-commerce entrepreneur Michael Amar, former Shop.org Executive Director Scott Silverman and alumni from Google, DAOODA and PayPal.
The company is backed by multiple investment firms such as Tugboat Ventures, Quest Venture Partners and Kima Ventures alongside a couple of angel investors like Adbrite CEO Iggy Fanlo, Vincent Worms and Nicolas El Baze (of investment firm Partech International) and David Scacco of MyLikes. It comes in the form of a hosted solution that lets retailers manage their own virtual goods promotion offers, redemption and related customer services. Marketing Virtual Goods: Q&A with Zynga's Mark Pincus. Will Zynga Become the Google of Games? Marketing Virtual Goods: Q&A with Zynga's Mark Pincus. Zynga links FarmVille and other games with American Express rewards. Membership has its privileges — even in the virtual worlds of social games. Zynga, the maker of FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other social games, is announcing today that you can use your rewards from American Express credit cards to buy virtual goods in its offerings.
The strategic relationship is a first between a social game company and a major credit-card rewards program. The American Express Membership Rewards program gives rewards to cardholders in the form of points. Users who play Zynga can take their American Express points and spent them on virtual goods in increments that are as small as 200 points, which is enough to get you a $2 gift card that you can spend on items in the game.
A purple cow in FarmVille, for instance, costs 540 American Express points. For students of consumer behavior, the implications of the deal are mindblowing: It’s the ultimate union of two virtual currencies. Frequent-flier miles and credit-card points are often seen in the same light.