Mega-Game FarmVille Now Takes Facebook Credits

It was inevitable that Facebook’s cross-application currency – which is primed to become a source of substantial revenue – would be provided on the social media giant’s mega -game FarmVille, with 84 million users.

Facebook Credits is now the default payment method for purchasing “farm cash” or “farm coins” for the social simulation game that is turning city slickers into crop-savvy farmers in droves. The other two options are charging by credit card or through PayPal, a new Facebook partner.

Users can purchase Facebook Credits through credit cards or PayPal, and use the virtual currency for gaming apps and to buy virtual goods from the Facebook Gift Shop. The intent is to provide a seamless payment method for all facets of Facebook.

Since its inception last June, FarmVille has become the most popular game application for Facebook. Its page has 22.7 million fans and its user base exceeds the population of Germany.

FarmVille, the creation of San Francisco-based Zynga game developers, is one of some 500,000 applications in some form of testing on Facebook, and the dominant social media player is fully aware of the revenue potential.

Facebook has decided that its cut will be 30 percent of revenue from game and applications developers who integrate Facebook Credits into their programs. For developers, it takes a deeper cut than the other payment methods, but it will draw more participants and Facebook will aggressively market those applications carrying Facebook Credits.

“Specifically, our early testing has shown that users paying with Facebook Credits are significantly more likely to complete a purchase than the average Facebook user,” wrote Facebook product marketer Deborah Liu on the Facebook developers’ blog last month.