With Facebook’s post IPO acquisition of social gifting app Karma the general consensus was that the social network would eventually integrate the ability send paid gifts to one another in the real world. That day has finally arrived, with the company announcing Facebook Gifts late last week.
The $80 million price tag associated with the Karma acquisition is peanuts compared to the earnings potential the added service would provide Facebook as the world’s largest social network tries to integrate new revenue streams to appease its shareholders. The foray into gifting is not the first time Facebook has explored the concept; however in the past gifts were simply digital goods with little tangible worth.
This time around however, FB benefits from Karma’s already existent inventory of hundreds of gifts available for purchase. According to Facebook, the new gifting feature will allow users to send gifts directly from birthday reminders or other user’s timelines. Gifts can be made privately or publicly for the bolder among us. The actual process is likely to be as painless as it sounds with the sender being able to enter their credit card information immediately following their gift selection or be asked for it at a later time in the process. The indication of the gift is brought to the attention of the receiver through their Facebook, allowing them to ‘unwrap’ it digitally and enter their actual address to receive the physical counterpart. A well wrapped gift is then delivered to the user’s doorstep a few days later.
Beyond the potential 900+ million users gifting one another could have on how the social network is used, the actual impact of the feature could be huge. The model will allow Facebook to gather incredible amounts of address, credit card and relationship data while also attracting third part brands and labels looking to add gifts to what is likely to be a rapidly growing list of options. Facebook will be taking a share of the margin on each gift sent through its network. According to TheNextWeb, there is a strong chance that Facebook will begin targeting users based on their demographic data, suggesting higher priced gifts to individuals who appear to be in higher tax brackets or more age appropriate gifts based on birth year and education.
SOURCE: TheNextWeb
PHOTO: Pulse2
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