CrowdStar Signs Five-Year Facebook Credits Deal

By Alicia Ashby On June 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment

CrowdStar has entered a five-year deal with Facebook that would see Facebook Credits remain the company's cash-based virtual currency in all of its games, which include Happy Aquarium, Hello City, Zoo Paradise, Happy Pets, and Happy Island. CrowdStar says that since the company went exclusively to Facebook Credits in December 2009, revenue has increased by 50%. According to CrowdStar, this reflects the level of "comfort and trust" that consumers have when buying from Facebook.

"CrowdStar has been a valued and important partner in the testing and development of Facebook Credits, and we’re pleased that our companies have formalized our commitment to work together," said Dan Rose, Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, in a press statement. "We’re committed to building the best social games platform in the world on Facebook for users and developers, and Facebook Credits is an important part of our strategy."

Right now CrowdStar is in a phase of rapid growth and expects to have 100 employees by the end of the year. Its focus now is on international expansion, with French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Turkish versions of Happy Aquarium released just last week. The Facebook deal calls for Facebook Credits to remain the exclusive cash-based virtual currency in all international versions of CrowdStar's games, too. CrowdStar says this will make it easier for the company to expand to new markets.

Facebook Credits is a cash-based virtual currency designed so that consumers can spend them across multiple Facebook games. Currently CrowdStar's Hello City is running a promotion that lets users get five Facebook Credits free for simply clicking on an ad offer. Hello City currently serves about 5 million monthly active users. Facebook Credits convert to USD at a rate of about 10 Credits to $1. Users can also obtain Credits free by accepting ad offers from Peanut Labs and Trial Pay.