For all its success, Google is often criticized as being a one-trick pony. After 12 years, the Internet search company is still struggling to find a significant new revenue source to supplement its lucrative text advertising business.
Facebook, the social networking giant that more than any other company aspires to seize Google’s dominant place on the Internet, hopes to avoid that problem. Already on the path to becoming an advertising powerhouse, Facebook is laying the groundwork for its second act: a virtual currency system that someday could turn into a multibillion-dollar business.
Facebook began testing its virtual currency, called Credits, more than a year ago with some popular games on Facebook. This month, Credits passed a milestone when it became the exclusive payment method for most of the games created by Zynga, the No.1 developer of Facebook applications.
Zynga is expected to have $500 million in revenue this year, according to the Inside Network, which tracks Facebook applications, as millions of users pay real money to buy virtual goods on games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. Through Credits, Facebook will take a 30 percent cut.
By the end of the year, Facebook expects Credits to be used to buy the majority of virtual goods sold on Facebook. The fast-growing market is expected to reach $835 million on Facebook this year, according to Inside Network. To bolster that market, Facebook started selling Credits gift cards at stores of the retailing chain Target across the United States this month.
For now, Facebook says it simply wants Credits to help foster the growth of virtual goods transactions. But Mark E. Zuckerberg, the chief executive, said recently that the company might choose to do “a lot more” with Credits in the future. Over time, the company plans to turn Credits into a system for micropayments that could be open…