The Facebook Currency Battle

While you may not have realized it, there is a battle taking place on Facebook right now between two types of currency: AceBucks and Zuckerbucks. Over one month ago I covered AceBucks which at the time were called FaceBucks. AceBucks is the work of Aryeh Goldsmith, one of the more popular Facebook application developers. Late yesterday, AceBucks started to experience exponential growth. I have a funny feeling that it may have to do with the 5 $150 Apple Store giftcards that they are giving out every week this summer. Additionaly, Aryeh notified me of some significant upgrades to the application last week. They have added a shopping mall to the application that allows you to purchase virtual gifts to show off on your Facebook profile. There is some fierce competition for AceBucks though. Adam Loving and T.A. McCann have released their own Facebook currency that can be used on real goods including an iPod Nano, a Nintendo Wii, a Coach purse, and a couple gift cards. Additionally, users can sell their own services as well as goods using Zuckerbucks. While AceBucks seems to be winning the competition currently, the war has not ended. The real question is whether or not a larger number of users will adopt these applications. The ceiling is close to 10,000 but it looks like Aryeh's application will cross that threshold sometime today or tomorrow. My suggestion to Aryeh is to offer an auction section where people can bid on real goods. I almost forgot one other thing. The two Facebook currencies have one other source of competition: U.S. Dollars. PayPal has already introduced an application that enables real transactions to practically take place within Facebook. I'm sure there are other companies that are working hard to release similar applications. Why use virtual currency to purchase things when I can use my own? This reminds me of those competitions that the wrapping paper companies used to hold when I was in middle school and rewarded me with things called weebles that I could use for prizes. The only difference there was that there was no limit on how many people I could sell to. For both of the new Facebook currencies, the only way to earn money is by inviting your friends and thus you are limited by the number of connections that you have. I think there are some kinks that need to be worked out but there is the potential to turn these currencies into something bigger. This is just an early battle in a long war. If you want to try out the currencies for yourself, go grab the Zuckerbucks application and go get some free AceBucks as well. Do you think there is a bigger purpose for a Facebook currency?

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The Facebook Currency Battle

Nick O'Neill

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Nick O'Neill