Last Friday Techcrunch noticed an instance of Facebook’s payment platform caught in the wild. The application that payments was integrated into was the GroupCard application and integration appears pretty straight forward. As we’ve been writing over the past few weeks, payments will begin to be rolled out across a few beta applications in the near future with the final launch months down the road.
When I used Facebook’s checkout service everything appeared to run smoothly except for some of the checkout text which didn’t wrap correctly in the checkout pop-up box. I have to say that the lightbox checkout integration is pretty slick and makes checking out much easier than any of the other payment systems I use regularly. One can imagine how this service could also be easily integrated in to Facebook Connect enabled sites in the future.
So how much is this new payment platform worth to Facebook? Right now Facebook is already doing around $50 million in virtual gift sales and games on the Facebook platform are selling much more. Even if the total virtual goods economy is around $200 million currently, that would result in Facebook generating around $4 million if there were a 2 percent transaction fee. $4 million is ultimately nothing considering Facebook is forecasted to bring over $500 million in revenue this year.
The real opportunity for Facebook payments is long-term thought. If the company can generate the de facto micro-transactions payment platform then there’s a relatively significant opportunity. Still, the micro-transactions economy will have to balloon for it to become a meaningful revenue source for Facebook. Perhaps that’s why there was so much internal debate prior to the platform being released.
Regardless of the debate, it’s clear that Facebook is moving forward with their payments platform and GroupCard is the first known application to benefit from the new Facebook payments integration. Have you seen any other applications integrate with Facebook payments? Do you think payments will generate much revenue for Facebook in the long-term?
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
Im very interested to see what the transaction cost will be.. There is a whole range of fees from the 30% that the iphone charges to the 2+% that is customary among credit card transactions.
Comment by David Haddad — June 1, 2009 @ 7:27 am
Oh yes, both developers and facebook will generate huge cash in the process. As David pointed out, Apple takes 30% of the cut (which is very high, imho). Facebook offer providers like offerpalmedia charge about 15% (that's what they say at least – have no way to check). Even that margin is quite good for facebook. This is a feature that should have already been implemented a year ago.
Comment by igniguy — June 1, 2009 @ 7:44 am
It is hard to say, I imagine people being very reluctant to use it at the beginning. Maybe if it is linked to Facebook Connect and makes it very easy to use, it could be possible.
Comment by Guillaume — June 2, 2009 @ 12:57 am
kdiroeir,dieworwe
Comment by Tempuser No — June 2, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
HI guys my is not working in iframe application in facebook aps could any one help
Comment by Praveen Kumar — March 8, 2010 @ 2:11 am
Hi i want to know about facebook payment gateway can any one help thanks in advance
Comment by praveen — March 8, 2010 @ 6:09 am
Sorry, I already have so much money invested in wildlife points that I paid to zoo world, or Rock You, and its not just a small amount of money, its up in the hundreds of dollars, I am not willing to spend any more money for any new points for facebook just to play my zoo game…..I will play it with my wildlife points that I have, this is just another way for facebook to cash in when it couldn't get it's monthly fee….I have spent all the money I am going to spend on facebook, or any app…No more for me, and if I have to , I will just go back to myspace, where its free….with all the limitations that facebook is going to start putting on us, saying our zoo posts are spam, well what about the facebook games like hearts, hugs, kisses, those are spam too, and the comments that some of my friends make that are put on the feed, that I don't care to see, they are spam too…..Facebook has gone too far this time..and I am not alone with this….there are thousands that feel this way…..
Comment by Linda — April 12, 2010 @ 9:27 am