Facebook Says Credits Won’t Pay Off Soon, Adds ’Like’ Feature - BusinessWeek

Facebook Says Credits Won’t Pay Off Soon, Adds ’Like’ Feature - BusinessWeek: "Virtual Goods
With Credits, Facebook is wading into the deepening virtual-goods market, which will almost double to $1.6 billion this year and could reach $3.6 billion in three years, according to Atul Bagga, a ThinkEquity LLC analyst in San Francisco. The market has attracted startups such as Kwedit Inc., which have their own payment approaches.
The Like program builds on an existing Facebook feature, which lets people click “like” when a friend posts a status update, photo or Web link. The Like option will begin appearing on outside Web sites, including those for the New York Times, Internet Movie Database and Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, Facebook said.
When users click “like” on those pages, their friends on Facebook will get an update. The friends can then comment on the information. For example, a Facebook user could see which friends like the jeans on Levis.com, Austin Haugen, a Facebook product manager, said in a blog posting.
Like relies on an approach called “open graph,” which lets companies more easily tap information from Facebook users on their sites. Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, is using the features to tie into a new Web-based Office program called Docs.com."