I woke up this morning to find a glorious $2.50 worth of Facebook credits on my Facebook account.  Sweeeeet….

With an active user base of 235 million global monthly users - Social Gaming is forecasted to earn $400 Million in 2010. The  purchase of virtual currency (c. 1.6 billion sold in 2010) as  the revenue stream for these companies. (ref)

As Facebook becomes further engrained in our lifes, there have been talks that it should be come regulated (mmmm very serious stuff) – However with the presence of my $2.50 – I feel the dynamics of my relationship changing with Facebook.  Changing from a social network, to a … gaming platform?  Let me explain. To date, Facebook has always been an extension of my self online, not a self promotion tool like twitter, but a virtual mirror of my real life – the option to participate in Social gaming has always been there, but never be pushed towards me – as it was today. The numbers don’t lie and social gaming is huge – it does make sense for Facebook to want a slice of the action. However are the short terms gains (incremental gains in revenue) – ultimately going to harm the long term goals of Facebook – to become a social utility, as I’m sure I can’ the only person feeling like this. Anyway I’m sure this is the start of something else…. Rewards schemes have been around for years, Air Points, Nectar Cards, frequent flyers points blah blah blah, we just finally have a platform to centralise it all….

Polorising my initial reaction to Facebook Credits – heres a Ted Talk I saw recently that could explain a new paradigm shift in our society… is Facebook credits the start of this?

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