July 23, 2008 11:36 AM PDT

Facebook virtual goods turning into real money

Posted by Dave Rosenberg

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Who would have thought that virtual pets would be the thing that lets independent developers monetize the Facebook audience.

Over on VentureBeat, Eric Eldon pulls in some great stats on users and monetization of Facebook apps.

Like grizzled miners panning for gold on a river high in the Sierras, Facebook applications developers have been toiling away, trying to figure out how to make money from the millions of people who use their apps every day. Those developers who focus on games are starting to find gold -- by which I mean revenue gained from doing things like selling virtual goods in exchange for real money.
(Note from Dave--I love the "grizzled miners" literary twist. We should start a contest to identify which techie guys were actually english majors.)

Via VentureBeat.

Dave Rosenberg is currently working on a new stealth start-up based in San Francisco. He is Co-founder of MuleSource, an open source integration and infrastructure software company and is a recognized thought-leader in open source software and service-oriented architecture. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

Topics:: Market Dynamics,; Economics,; Marketing

Tags:: Facebook,; VentureBeat

Bookmark:: Digg; Del.icio.us; Reddit

About Negative Approach

Dave Rosenberg is currently working on a new stealth start-up based in San Francisco. On the Negative Approach Blog, Dave discusses the dynamics of growing a startup company and how the software market is evolving against monolithic software corporations whose corporate hegemony stifle innovation and annoy developers worldwide. He has experience at both large corporations and several startups; technology has long been his best friend and mortal enemy. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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