Unless you read Facebook’s own blog you may be unaware and completely oblivious to the fact that it is going to shut down its “Gift Shop”. You may have noticed in the past when you have gone to wish someone “Happy Birthday” that the comment box was larger and containing a space for you to select a gift to send.
What I couldn’t understand is why someone would pay $1 to send a “virtual gift” or e-Card to someone on their birthday or “just because it was there”. The only “gift” in there that I could even think about using was the charity donation option but even then I most people would not give it a look in. Personally, I’m rather indifferent to the Gift Shop being there or not but I would urge people not to buy me anything as I would view it as a waste of money.
My views aside, Facebook has had millions of virtual gifts purchased and sent using “virtual currency”. I’m sure it has been a nice little cash cow for them and their virtual currency will continue to make them a profit with other applications after the Gift Shop shuts its doors on August 1st, 2010. What started out as a “hackathon” effort back in 2007 turned into something commercially viable at least for the few years it was in operation.
Have you ever used the Gift Shop and, if so, what did you buy?
1 comment
I thought it was a bit of a bung idea too; you used to get free credits when it first started up and I liked sending the dodgy free promo ones to my sister for a bit of fun… The best one was “ninjabread” but I never got him cuz he cost a whole dollar. One day ninjabread, one day.