Facebook To Close Virtual Gifting Service
Facebook is shuttering its virtual gifting service, which among many other items for a time included music. The Facebook Gift Shop closes Aug. 1, according to a company blog post, saying the move is to help “focus our product development efforts” such as photos, news feeds, games and comments.
The gifting service begat Facebook’s credit-based virtual currency, which lets users pay real money to buy virtual credits that could be used to buy virtual items. The credit system remains in place.
For a time, Facebook Gifts included the ability to buy and give away music tracks via the Lala service. Facebook and Lala struck the deal last October, and at the time Lala founder Bill Nguyen singled out Facebook’s credit system as a key motivator of the deal. However Facebook Gifts lost access to music when Lala shut down May 31.
