History rhymes

Today's most important financial innovation happens away from Wall Street. Early gaming transactions in the world of social networking are a good indicator of a major shift in internet business models. As goods and services become increasingly digital, money will flow away from ads to true virtual transactions. Very similar to the commerce/banking revolution that happened in the 17th century Europe:

The Amsterdam Exchange Bank (Wisselbank) was set up in 1609 to resolve the practical problems created for merchants by the circulation of multiple currencies in the United Provinces, where there were no fewer than fourteen different mints and copious quantities of foreign coins. By allowing merchants to set up accounts denominated in a standardized currency, the Exchange Bank pioneered the system of cheques and direct debits or transfers that we take for granted today.

Ferguson Niall. The Ascent of Money. 2008. p.48.

and 400 years later:

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. is expanding a service called Facebook Credits that gives it a 30 percent cut of sales from tractors, fish food and guns in online games...

Today, gamers on Facebook can either buy Facebook Credits to obtain items in games, or pay for them through third-party services. Of the $3.6 billion in U.S. virtual goods sales in 2012, about $2.2 billion will be on social networks, with 80 percent on Facebook, said Atul Bagga, a ThinkEquity analyst in San Francisco. If all payments on the site use Facebook Credits, that would mean $530 million in revenue for the company, he said.

Facebook has become a market of markets. Their social identity management system is ideally suited to support a variety of digital transaction models. They just need to fix gaping security holes. As they say in Russian, "начать и кончить" :)

tags: innovation, money, control, scale, security, internet, social, network, information