Virtual Currency

How can the future economic change ?
Could we imagine our future money ? There could be a lot of lifestyle changes in the world. Most people would like to consider the virtual currency as their future revenue and leave their actual job which is obtaining the real money. Could you imagine that ?

Internet applications move toward the virtual world (such as virtual economy) that allows every users to pay online, either using the real currency or virtual currency. It is obvious that in the near future, people need not to work at the company since all online shop permit every purchase item paid by virtual money. And, they - users - could easily get virtual currency by playing game online, use the social networking application (facebook, hi5, etc.).

People get rewards from what they contributed (to company, to organization, to others, etc.). It is certain that this reward & punishment issue are relevant to any actual industry. However, sooner or later, the advent of virtual world turn this issue into virtual reward and punishment. By gaming online, people need not to worry about real punishment. They could survive and put more effort to gain the rewards. In the social networking application, they do not worry about any distrust issue. If someone befool us, we don't have to worry about our real life since it will not influence our meal. Loosing any virtual money will not effect to much on the real world's life. That will be a big issue for human being in the next decade.

I refered to some articles that discussing about the virtual currency issues.

Universal virtual currency, however, could make a lot of sense for Facebook, especially given the recent “virtual credits” system that was introduced in Facebook’s own virtual gifting system. In this scenario, users would buy blocks of Facebook virtual currency directly, and then be able to use them in various ways in both Facebook’s own virtual gifts store or in third party applications. Hi5 announced a similar universal virtual currency program two weeks ago for developers on the hi5 Platform.

A large virtual currency and payment ecosystem has been growing on the Facebook Platform over the last two years. Many games and other applications are already monetizing well through their own virtual currencies, either through offer providers such as OfferPal, Super Rewards, Peanut Labs, and Gambit, direct credit card or Paypal/Amazon/Google payments through providers like Jambool and Spare Change, or mobile payments through providers like Zong and Paymo.

The opportunity to plug into a virtual currency system that would be available to every Facebook user would certainly be interesting to many developers. However, neither building a global payments platform nor managing a universal virtual currency are small tasks.

Should Facebook launch a virtual currency system, the dynamics of how it would affect existing monetization systems would heavily depend on the implementation – both from a user experience and a technical integration perspective. However, ultimately, things will simply come down to whichever option can make the best returns for a given application’s user base.

JAMBOOL
Payments is hard. Creating and managing an economy is even harder – just ask the Federal Reserve. Social Gold solves both problems for developers with a secure and easy-to-integrate API. Specifically, Social Gold offers:

•a scalable currency platform that you can have up and running with your own white-labeled currency in a matter of hours
•an industry-leading, in-game payments experience that can increase conversion by as much as 50%
•a robust analytics platform that helps you manage and optimize your virtual economy

Spare Change
Spare Change is simple. Users fund their Spare Change account with their credit card, PayPal, bank account or mobile phone - or complete marketing offers and surveys. Users use Spare Change instantly on all of their favorite social network applications.
For consumer:
- Buy fast and easy. It's never been easier to buy online. With Spare Change you can use your network logon or Spare Change balance on hundreds of apps with just a single click. Think iTunes on social networks.
- Buy with confidence. With Spare Change, any purchase you make is eligible for a 30-day refund.

For developer:
- Increase your revenue. By accepting micropayments via Spare Change, you can greatly increase your revenue. Also earn a revenue stream off every new user you refer to Spare Change!
- Integrate fast. We made payments, which are usually pretty hard, really easy. We find most developers can integrate our solution in just a couple hours.
- Grow your user base. Not only do we help you monetize your users, we also help drive other Spare Change users back to your apps.

Super Rewards

Implementing a Super Rewards offer-based platform has been proven to be the best way to monetize social applications and games. Super Rewards goes beyond displaying run-of-the-mill CPM or CPC ads; allowing publishers to incorporate the monetization platform as an unintrusive, yet integral component to the application or game.

Using the Super Rewards offer platform, publishers can reward gamers and app users with additional points, virtual goods, or virtual dollars for completing offers or paying directly with their credit card, mobile phone, or many other options.


Social Networking Sites: Super Rewards is implemented on nearly every major social networking platform including Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, and Hi5.

Standalone Sites: Super Rewards is also a primary monetization platform for a variety of standalone sites. Whether it is a dating web-app, software download site, or a membership/subscription-based site, Super Rewards can be easily implemented by dropping in the iFrame.

MMOs: Massively Multiplayer games and virtual worlds have also seen the benefits of turnkey virtual currency platform implementations. Super Rewards works there too!

iPhone: Add Super Rewards to your iPhone apps! Initial results show that mobile apps and games monetize extremely well. Create an account to download the SDK.

Gambit
In 2007, the Gambit's team formed kickflip inc. to build online games, eventually reaching over 7 million users. They had the same problem you have...making money. So they built all the tools they needed to help users pay for their games. Their users loved it. They also loved it. So they thought they'd allow a few friends to use it. Surprisingly, the developers and their users liked it too. Since then they've been focused on providing the easiest payment solution for online games and communities.

Peanut Labs Media Monetization Platform
The largest global footprint and widest choice of monetization options. Ever. The Peanut Labs Media Monetization Platform is designed specifically to work with virtual currencies and goods in the new digital economy - be they social applications on Facebook, Myspace or Linkedin, or leading Games and Gaming communities.

The platform is turnkey, simple to setup and fully managed. We handle all billing and sales logistics, customer support, currency conversions, optimizations and fraud resolution. Publishers average $300 eCPMs using the entire system. Peanut Labs was listed as a FAST Top 50 Company in 2008. See this Interactive Map for our global monetization options in major countries.

Offerpal Media
Offerpal Media, the leader in virtual currency monetization, in 16 September 2009 announced the launch of its self-service Multivariate Testing platform. Designed to help online game developers increase revenues from their virtual goods and services, the platform provides a simple way to test, measure and optimize critical monetization variables including exchange rates, price points, user interface options and more. The multivariate testing is available for free to users of Offerpal Media’s virtual currency payment platform.

source:
www.jambool.com
www.sparechangeinc.com
www.srpoints.com
www.getgambit.com
www.peanutlabsmedia.com
www.offerpalmedia.com