You know those thumbnail images that Facebook labels as $1-or-less digital gifts to share with friends? According to Lightspeed Venture Partners, the network was selling them at a rate of $15 million worth per year as of January 2008. And in a revised assessment of the rate of sales, those doodads are now fetching twice that. A bit more than twice, in fact. An estimated $35 million.
It’s interesting that this story is released following the Labor Day break, and only a couple of days after Ira Glass spotlighted the theme of “
org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=62" target="_blank" rel='nofollow'>Something for Nothing” on the radio program “This American Life.” Not to call Facebook a trickster, but the profitability on these purchases is quite high, I imagine, with little effort involved to start.
The newest tally, I should say, reflects reasonably well on the Facebook community. If one assumes that the sales number is mostly restricted to a small pool of enthused users (bulk orders are possible), somewhat akin to the purportedly skewed usage of the iTunes store for $0.99 purchases of music singles, the network on the whole arguably remains unseduced by the trinkets. Phew.
[...] Facebook has been giving users the chance to try out the site’s new design before it switches over permanently in the middle of this month — and many users have let them know that they liked the old design just fine, thanks. [...]
$35 million a year on virtual gifts!
Now, the dollars you spend to send virtual gifts can also make the world a better place.
A new nonprofit app on facebook, Changing The Present, makes it easy. Your dollar goes to the nonprofit you choose, and the picture your friend receives shows what you helped accomplish.
THEN: send a picture of a cupcake
NOW: help feed a hungry child
THEN: send a picture of lips
NOW: help fund cleft palate surgery for a child’s smile
THEN: send a picture of a flower
NOW: help preserve acres of the rainforest
You can choose from among more than a thousand $1 donation gifts from hundreds of leading nonprofits.
Imagine the impact we can make together as this new kind of gift catches on!
Please help spread the word.
Here’s the app:
http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2551062524
And here’s the related website: http://www.ChangingThePresent.org
( Full disclosure: my company, WellGood LLC, consults to ChangingThePresent )