Facebook has expanded testing of a virtual goods payment platform, one that serves as a central place to pay for virtual goods and buy currency usable in different games on the social net. Bloomberg reports that the platform, called Facebook Credits, is now being tested in about seventeen games including popular titles such as CrowdStar’s Happy Aquarium and Playfish’s Restaurant City. People associated with the company told the news outlet that Facebook’s plan is to further expand the rollout at its upcoming developer conference in April. Facebook Credits is being seen as a way to boost users comfort level with buying virtual items, and in turn boosting sales for games. For that facility, Facebook is charging game makers a 30 percent cut on every dollar they transact on the platform. ThinkEquity analyst Atul Bagga shared a clear-cut scenario with Bloomberg to show how much money Facebook stands to make. He said that based on his firm’s forecast of $2.2 billion in social game sales in the U.S. by 2012, of which 80 percent is expected to be from Facebook, Facebook Credits could make the company as much as $530 million in revenues. Read more at BusinessWeek {link no longer active}.

Facebook Expands Game Payment Platform
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