Facebook Credits to be launched in India from July 1

Social networking site Facebook will next month introduce a payment system 'Facebook Credits' for Indian users who could spend the virtual currency across various games or applications they use on the popular website.

A virtual currency, Facebook Credits is already popular among gaming enthusiasts in many other countries, including the US.

"Facebook will introduce a new payment system Facebook Credits in India from July 1," a company spokesperson told PTI.

Facebook Credits enables fast and easy transactions across games on the social networking site and would benefit about 2.5 crore Facebook subscribers in the country.

The users would be able to enter their payment information once and can buy, earn and spend safely across various games or applications they use on Facebook.

"Starting July 1, we will require all social game developers on the Facebook canvas platform to process payments through Facebook Credits," Facebook Platform Marketing Manager Deb Liu wrote on the company's official blog in January.

This will also help various brands, which use the medium of Facebook to retail them goods through their social pages.

"Facebook Credits is currently used in more than 350 applications from 150 developers, representing more than 70 per cent of virtual goods transactions volume on Facebook," Liu had said.

Facebook Credits would also offer incentives such as early access to product features, premium promotion on Facebook, premium targeting for ads, and access to new co-promotion opportunities.

Many developers such as Zynga, Playfish, CrowdStar, Digital Chocolate, PopCap and Arkadium have already adopted Facebook Credits for in-game virtual goods.