Amazon launched its first digital currency today with a giveaway: 500 free Amazon Coins for every Kindle Fire customer. The coins, which are worth $5, can be used to buy games, app, and in-app purchases.
Now Amazon has yet another way to differentiate the Kindle Fire from other Android tablets.
Guest Post Designing a revenue model based on digital goods might seem straightforward. Create a compelling product, give users a way to buy incremental content to improve their gaming experience, then sit back and count the transactions.
Experience tells us it’s not that simple.
It’s always hard for us to tell if Canadians are being ironic, but we’re pretty sure the Royal Canadian Mint knew what they were doing when they offered $50,000 in gold coins to the software developer who could design the …
Microsoft is expected to phase out its proprietary virtual currency system, Microsoft Points, by the end of the year, according Inside Mobile Apps.
Citing an unnamed source, the publication said the change will affect all developers of apps for Windows …
PopCap Games has angered virtual bakers on Facebook by deciding to shut the doors to its Baking Life app on Jan 31. Despite many users having spent real money buying virtual ‘Zip Cash’ to use in the game, PopCap says …
American Express (Amex) announced today it has acquired virtual currency company Sometrics, for $30 million, according to Tech Crunch.
Sometrics, with 450 games and an audience of 225 million gamers in 200 countries, is a smart acquisition for Amex. Sometrics …
Investing in and using Bitcoins, a digital currency that can be transferred directly from person to person through the Internet, is a particularly bad idea because it is unstable and is being used as a speculative vehicle. That’s the consensus …
How committed is Facebook to broadening its revenue streams beyond advertising?
So serious that it’s formed a subsidiary, Facebook Payments, Inc., and is registering it in a host of states.
The move could signal an intent by the world’s largest …
MMGN.com, a video gaming website in Australia, is launching an online marketplace where gamers can sell virtual goods across multiple video games, the site’s founder told VentureBeat.
The site already hosts a number of these kinds of deals in its …
Sales of virtual goods and prepaid game cards grew steeply on Black Friday and the Thanksgiving weekend compared to a year ago. That means that online gamers are increasingly embracing opportunities to spend their real money on virtual goods for …
Zynga, the creator of social networking games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has filed a patent on purchased in-game currency.
Online games have long offered virtual currencies, usually earned by performing actions within a game. The currency can then be …
Facebook has teamed up with social monetization firm PlaySpan to expand its reach to more users around the globe for its Facebook Credits virtual currency.
Deborah Liu (pictured below, right), manager of product marketing for Facebok Credits, said in a …
RockYou, the maker of social games and ad services for social media, said today it is working with other game developers to integrate its successful social marketing program within their Facebook games.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has been integrating …
Confirming earlier rumors, Google has announced the acquisition of virtual-currency startup Jambool for an undisclosed price. Jambool confirmed the deal in a letter on its website today.
TechCrunch had previously reported that Google was buying the maker of the Social …
Zong, a mobile payments startup that helps social gamers buy virtual goods, raised $15 million from Matrix Partners. The company, which started off as a division of Echovox and rode the wave of the booming virtual-goods industry, has now spun-off …
