Over the past few weeks there have been several important “Facebook factors” that have happened which could really impact on the way we all use the Internet in the future.

1) Facebook reaching 500,000,000 users. (active? Maybe not – but still!)
2) Facebook beta testing Facebook credits
3) Security researcher Ron Bowes crawling 100,000,000 Facebook urls (maybe blown out of all proportion as the data was publicly available but the the relevancy here is the medias love affair with online security)
4) Neilsen research finding 40 percent of online time is spent on just three activities — social networking, playing games, and e-mailing.
5) Google investing $120 million on Zynga the online game company (responsible for Farmville and Mafia Wars) last month.

The reason these 5 factors are so important. Combined, social networking and online games make up 32.9 percent of the time spent online. Facebook has the largest user base on the Internet. And Facebook credits will be in full release by the end of September 2010.
In my opinion the only issue that could possibly stop Facebook changing the way we pay for purchases online is factor number 3. Do the public trust Facebook enough?

Facebook Credits are currently in beta trial – click on your “Account” link in the top right corner and you can access a Facebook credits section. You may even have some that you’ve earned through playing games within the Facebook platform. However you will soon be able to use these credits for more than just buying virtual gifts. Something that although seems quite pointless to most people, has piloted the concept perfectly for Facebook.

The issue for many companies would be they wouldn’t want their users leaving their website to buy their products – perfectly reasonable. But with the launch of Facebook Connect and using the Open Graph protocol, users can connect to use their Facebook credits from any website that has implemented the necessary code. Problem solved and a massive impact on how we potentially buy products and services online created.

Users will in the main purchase credits within Facebook using their credit card, but there is also the opportunity for brands to incentivise the engagement of their brand through offering credits to users who “like” their business page on facebook or play their social games.

This new “social commerce” may be the way we find ourselves paying for downloading software, games and videos as well as purchasing our shopping or even booking our holidays. Why not? It’s only a variation on how paypal works, but now it’s being applied to a social arena it has led to creative thinking on how developers can issue credits and apply credits to what is now the most common activity on the Internet… Socialising.

One of the first companies to trial social commerce is Procter & Gamble having already started selling Max Factor cosmetics through Facebook. Disney also allowed users to purchase tickets for Toy Story 3 within Facebook using credits.

This isn’t a new concept. Microsoft brought out a Passport scheme that allowed users to store their credit card credits in an account that could be used on multiple websites. However, users didn’t trust the scheme enough back then… So do they now?
This is the only reason social commerce could fail. Because stories such as the recent “security” issue of facebook users details being available on a torrent made the news. It was a pointless story and one that didn’t even register with IT professionals. But not everyone is an IT professional and the media loves Internet scare stories. Therefore hundreds-of-thousands of potential users will be put off by the fear their credits will be stolen because they have them stored on a social network that carelessly puts them in control of their own details! What next? Banks issuing credit cards with a simple 4 digit pin that your not suppose to tell people!

Many people have questioned for some time how Facebook makes it’s money, with the simple answer being advertising. However, this will be small change compared to social commerce if the web community adopts it. It has been stated Facebook will charge a 30% commission for developers using it’s credits. Now that’s revenue!

Even with the large commission charge, developers will not be able to ignore the fact that the largest community on the web are using this new currency and will therefore almost be forced into using the system. Therefore I feel it boils down to the fact that if users trust social commerce it will be how we conduct our business online in future. If not, just like in the late 90’s it will fail again.