If you are thinking of buying a virtual puppy on Facebook, you better do it fast because Facebook has announced that it soon be closing the Gift Shop on August 1st.
Users who have already received gifts purchased from the store will still see them on their profiles after the shop is shutdown, but new gifts will no longer be available. Facebook believes that this move will encourage developers to concentrate on the next generation of site features.
Jared Morgenstern, product manager for games and credits at Facebook, stated:
"Closing the Gift Shop may disappoint many of the people who have given millions of gifts, but we made the decision after careful thought about where we need to focus our product development efforts. We’ll be able to focus more on improving and enhancing products and features that people use every day, such as Photos, News Feed, Inbox, games, comments, the “Like” button and the Wall."
Facebook will definitely lose some revenue from the move. Back in 2008, the virtual gift shop fetched the company $35 million. Facebook will probably introduce some other features that will compensate for the revenue loss. The global market for virtual items will reach $10 billion this year. And so this move may sound surprising to some.
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