Facebook is clearly focused on their gifting business. Recently the company made a small modification which increased birthday gift promotions on your friends’ profiles. Tonight Facebook rolled out a new Valentine’s day promotion. When you visit any of your friends’ profiles you are instantly prompted with the option of sending a Valentine’s day gift to that friend.
The gift will be revealed to your friend at midnight on Valentine’s day. There is then a large number of Valentine’s day themed gifts. From troll dolls, to thongs, to cakes, to Valentine’s day ninjas? I’m honestly not sure what the ninja is about but there are also a couple of branded gifts in there including a Honda heart love meter and a Cover Girl lips gift.
It’s not surprising to see the company increasing its promotion of holiday themed gifts. I’m guessing that we’ll see a lot more of these types of promotions in the near future. As Facebook continues to search for a more effective monetization model, virtual gifts are providing a sizeable revenue stream. By some estimates Facebook’s virtual gifts business reaches the tens of millions of dollars.
Asia, in contrast to the United States, has a long history of virtual goods on social networks as advertising revenue is not as strong outside of this country. It’s great to see Facebook pushing their virtual goods and I can only hope that they’ll continue to promote these goods in the future as it easily can help cover the cost of a couple thousand servers!
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OMG that thing on top is the most annoying thing EVER. I certainly hope FB doesn’t end up like mixi – a complete and utter cluster. mess. Hence, another reason FB mobile > FB web.
Comment by Mona Nomura — February 12, 2009 @ 12:35 am
i agree – FB must keep their virtual goods promotion models – keep it social and less corporate like those invading & annoying adds.
Comment by Facebook User — February 12, 2009 @ 12:48 am
Most of the people feel happy in their virtual world like facebook, I think the main reason is you have extreme enjoyment for no cost, and there are very few companies giving free offers on Valentines Day, like Vopium, it offers you Free International Calls on this Valentines Day, I read this on facebook. I hope you also know about it and I think we should go for it, right?
Comment by Maria — February 12, 2009 @ 1:25 am
I visited a friend’s Facebook page and saw that. I had no idea if it was something specifically connected to her, if she set it up, if it was related to some sort of promotion, etc.
It almost comes off looking like the friend is asking for gifts. I think Facebook might have wanted to clarify how it works.
Comment by Suzanne Lainson — February 12, 2009 @ 2:53 am
WTF!!!! Is it possible to remove the Valentine’s Day Gifts box from the profile? I don’t want everybody knowing who’s sending me a gift!!!!!!
Comment by Mark — February 12, 2009 @ 9:09 am
how do i get the vopium free calls and valentines gifts on facebook?
Comment by Facebook User — February 12, 2009 @ 6:08 pm