How big is Facebook? Are you sure you want to know? Really? Then ask yourself a question: Does the company you work for have its own currenny, i.e. its own money accepted around the world?
Let's say you work for one of the large companies in Silicon Valley: Cisco. Does Cisco have its own currency? No. Or another company here in the Bay Area, Safeway. Safeway comes close because it has its own prepaid cards, and that's what Facebook is creating with the help of a company in Malaysia. (Malaysia? Great company, but why go so far to create Facebook Credits? Oh, of course. It's off shore.)
Here's the quick reporting from Business Week / Bloomberg:
Facebook users may buy credits to use in games such as Farmville, developed by San Francisco, California-based Zynga Game Network Inc., which attracts more than 62 million players monthly, according to Facebook’s website.
MOLPoints will be available in cybercafés, 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores and online banks...
Some of us, well that would be me, aren't quite sure we (I) understand the notion of life in this new fangled virtual world. If that's the case for you, perhaps you'll want to follow my lead and spend some time digesting the new issue of First Monday, an online publication you really ought to learn more about and appreciate. In the current edition, one finds the following stories:
Seller Activity in the Virtual Marketplace
My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft
And this very interesting article,
Pirates of Silicon Valley: State of exception and dispossession in Web 2.0Which includes this gem
Our conclusion is then that the definitions of and attitudes towards legitimate piracy is very much in the air right now.
Indeed.
Overall, please visit First Monday.
