Inside Facebook
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| Facebook allows U.K. developer to launch real-money gambling app on platform Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:50 AM PDT
Real-money gambling is illegal in the U.S., but if Facebook allows more of these games in other countries, it could be a significant source of payments revenue. Facebook reported $192 million in revenue from games and other payments in the second quarter of 2012, but that was only a 3.6 percent increase from the same period in 2011. Unlike in the U.S., gambling is a part of the U.K. culture and it’s comparatively easy to operate an online gambling site/app on a global scale. Last month, Christopher Griffin told our sister blog Inside Social Games that his real-money gaming platform Betable is able to operate worldwide because the company’s servers are in the U.K. and the country’s laws allow them to operate anywhere in the world, except in those nations where online gambling is explicitly forbidden. With Facebook’s age-gating and geo-location technology, Bingo Frenzy and its corresponding News Feed stories will not be visible to users under 18 years old or anyone outside of the U.K. Real-money gaming is still illegal in the United States because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, although there are exceptions in the states of Nevada and New Jersey. Many in the industry expect the law to be overturned within the next few years. That said, more and more studios are launching social casino apps on Facebook because they tend to have stronger monetization and retention rates than standard arcade titles. Developers like Zynga and Idle Games have recently gone on record to say they’re positioned to take advantage of real-money gaming when it’s legalized in North America, and it also seems likely that casino groups like IGT Interactive, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts are poised to do so as well. In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said, "Facebook is a place that allows people to connect and share. Real money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in the U.K. and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner." Gamesys, which also operates the popular Bingo and slots website jackpotjoy in the U.K., requires users to be above the age of 18 years old to play. Bingo Friendzy contains 90 different Bell Bingo and slots games, and The Telegraph reports players need credit cards to play instead of soft/hard currency. A version of this article originally appeared on our sister site, Inside Social Games. |
| Facebook pushes users to add location to more photos with News Feed and sidebar prompts Posted: 07 Aug 2012 10:17 AM PDT
A new module in the site's right-hand sidebar prompts users to add location to specific photos they have taken. Facebook suggests a place based on the GPS location information stored in the EXIF data of the image. Users can also select another place to tag if the suggestion isn't accurate. After clicking "add location," the location and photo will be added to a user's Timeline map. The social network also continues to run stories in News Feed about friends who have added photos to their maps. The story includes links to a user's own map where they can tag the location of their own photos and friends' photos they've been tagged in.
Smartphone photos often include the GPS coordinates of where the image was taken, but since many people might not know this, Facebook has to be careful not to make users uncomfortable. Clicking the question mark in the top corner of the sidebar module brings users to the Help Center, which explains how cameras include date and location information for each photo. There is also an option to provide feedback about Facebook's location tagging. The social network has previously offered location suggestions based on the plain text location included in an album's description. In April, Facebook said that 200 million users were tagging 2 billion photos and posts with location each month. That number is likely much higher now as Facebook offers these kinds of prompts and more users switch to Timeline, which includes the map view. Facebook also recently added the option for page owners to tag their posts and photos with location, but we haven't seen similar suggestions for pages to add location information to photos they uploaded in the past. Earlier this week we discovered Facebook testing a new mobile module that prompts users to Like a page moments after they check into a location. The company is likely working on a location-based ad product, and so it would want to get users into the habit of including their location with all their posts and photo uploads. |
Online gambling company Gamesys today launches 
Facebook is encouraging users to tag the location of their photos through sidebar modules and News Feed stories, likely to build better profiles of where users have been.
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