In-Game Payments with Flash and Social Gold

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Gaming is obviously a huge part of the Flash marketplace and luckily this year we as a company have started to acknowledge that and hopefully address developer needs. Part of that was the Flash CS5 support for creating iPhone applications. Another is the “Shibuya” try/buy service that we have, which allows developers to much more easily monetize their AIR applications (and thus AIR-based Flash games). But the coolest thing is seeing the ecosystem grow up around this. A great example is Social Gold.

Social Gold takes the monetization of Flash content to the next level by allowing users to make in-game purchases. They’ve got an API that lets you do everything from micropayments to recurring subscriptions. They’ve got a good demo of the workflow on their site. They handle all of the credit card processing so it’s relatively straightforward to include the Flash code in your application and start accepting payments. The revenue split is about 90-10, which seems very fair.

All of the samples are for games, but there’s nothing to prevent this from going in any other type of Flash application, so it’s a very interesting way to monetize Flash content in the browser or on the desktop with AIR. One of the main issues is security. Because SWF files can be decompiled, there’s the potential for problems if you try to embed secret keys inside of your Flash application. This can lead to a spoofing attack where a malicious SWF file gets your information and authenticates against Social Gold’s system. Social Gold attempts to solve this by keeping the keys on the server only and just passing session variables back and forth. I’m not a security guy, so I won’t comment on the implementation, but it seems like a reasonable approach considering the security constraints of Flash.

We saw with the iPhone how important it is for developers to monetize content and so it’s great to see more opportunities to do that come to the Flash Platform. I think 2010 is going to be a big year for small Flash shops or individual developers who want the freedom of making a living on the Platform.

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  • http://hat6.com Dusty Jewett

    This is great for distributed flash ‘widgets’ and ‘games’, but if you have a back-end developer, I’d recommend using Amazon or Paypal. Amazon has the lowest rates, 2-3%, though PayPal is more widely known.

  • bgr

    It sure looks great. On the other hand, lots of bad reviews on their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=27363669659

  • http://getsocialgold.com Social Gold

    Dusty,

    Actually, Social Gold is an ideal platform for both backend integration as well as in-flash.

    Typical macropayment fee structure includes 30c fees, which make $1 purchases difficult, as opposed to more flexible pricing structure for micropayments that we offer. And we can customize pricing for developer needs.

    Several developers use Social Gold with backend integration — many facebook game developers use us with slick UI integration coupled with backend integration.

    Hope this helps.

  • http://getsocialgold.com Social Gold

    bgr: The app is only used for users to file payment disputes or to do additional verification for their payments. That’s why the skew towards less favorable reviews.

    Social Gold serves thousands of users every day on Facebook — and a majority of them come back and do repeat purchases. This is in fact the USP of the product: significant conversion from one-time purchasers to repeat purchasers.

    We’d be happy to share more details.. email us at developers@jambool.com or on follow us on twitter: @socialgold

  • http://hat6.com Dusty Jewett

    Great point, I suppose I don’t think of micro-transactions very often.

  • mary

    i tried to purchase $$ and waS told i was under review…i could not contact support because the default mail client(???) was not installed….what does all that mean..and can i buy $$$ or not???? thanks for your time

  • http://getsocialgold.com Social Gold

    Mary,

    Please email support@jambool.com and they will be able to help you.

  • A Oloughlin

    What the%$#*& is this. I have been slugged $26. For what???

  • Uniqueladylov

    Look at Facebook and and type in Social Gold! You will see all of the reports, where they have ripped people off from their money! I’m serious. Social Gold sucks! Don’t buy through them. I hope they go out of business! Forget emailing support@jambool.com too! All you get over and over are automated emails. I’ve talked to TONS of people who have had their credit cards, re-charged, when they never got their merchandise from games. Especially poker! Something most of you should know is that a LOT of the games on Facebook are made by developers from over seas. Also, when you buy through Social Gold, there is a phone number that comes to your bank account …BUT..no one ANSWERS!!! It’s AUTOMATED, answering service! You cannot directly speak to anyone about your problem. Notice.. Social Gold post below… “email” them. Forget it! Again.. go to Social Gold on Facebook and look at all of the complaints. Some say they’ve even contacted the FBI, BBB, Consumer Fraud and Facebook about this company but still, nothing has been done. PLEASE PEOPLE, BEWARE! Others are trying to get them taken out of business!!