At Social Gold, we’re dedicated to continually bringing new and innovative payment methods to the arena of flash-based social games. Which is why we were so delighted this week to announce our partnership with Zong.

Until now, making a purchase within a flash game – usually virtual currency – was a process limited to those who held credit cards. Because the primary purpose of Social Gold is to make in-game transactions as quick, seamless and secure as possible, Zong seemed like a natural partner as a company that’s revolutionized social gaming payments by allowing users to fund their accounts with nothing more than a cell phone number.

What this means for us is that the developers who use Social Gold secure in-flash payments to process their transactions – more than 100 are either live or are actively integrating our API since it was announced a few weeks ago – have access to an even larger paying user base. In the earlier release, we made it possible for users to pay using credit cards, securely within flash games. Now, even people who have not yet secured a line of credit can sign up and improve their gaming experience. It’s an exciting development that delivers almost every paying demographic to flash-based games.

Cell phone users of Social Gold get the same frictionless, in-app experience they’ve come to expect with our previous functionality in games like Barn Buddy and Uno, never having to leave the action in order to load or reload their accounts.

We’re proud of our continued commitment to both users and developers. For users, we’ve provided yet another facet in helping to make their gaming experience as complete and unobtrusive as possible, going so far as to accept PayPal and Amazon accounts through our interface.

For developers, we’ve opened a channel to reach an entire segment of previously unavailable customers. Developers of all sizes – from small houses to some of the industry’s biggest names, like the Broth, Crowdstar and RealNetworks – have integrated Social Gold’s API, with more signing on every day.

The process is as easy as registering your cell phone number. Users’ providers supply the necessary credit, then bill them on their regular billing cycle. The process is the same as it is for credit card customers; users never have to leave the game interface to stock their virtual bank accounts.

This is just the latest step in our ongoing dedication to helping developers provide cutting-edge security and payment options to their customers. Keep your eyes open – there’s more on the way.

   
Playfish’s recent acquisition by Electronic Arts is great news for the company itself (it was purchased for up to $400 million in cash, stock and earnouts), but also for the social gaming industry as a whole. Playfish is the most respected social games company — every developer we talked to brings up their user experience as the benchmark. With this acquisition, one can imagine a whole new set of possibilities for both companies.

It “validates the social gaming business model overall,” said Playfish COO Sebastien de Halleux in a PaidContent interview.

What’s important to remember here is why Playfish — a company just two years old — was worth so much to EA. Playfish set the bar high with games like Pet Society, Restaurant City, Country Story and Who Has the Biggest Brain?.

These titles are noteworthy because of their quality. Their popularity alone can attest to that; instead of the standard array of promotional techniques used by many social gaming companies, Playfish relies primarily on word of mouth. Its games are successful because the company pays attention to the qualitative feedback (both solicited and otherwise) it receives from players. It tracks gamers’ tendencies to see what works and what doesn’t.

Most of all, it cares more about delivering an authentic user experience than it does the bottom line, and people flock to that mentality. (Look no farther any of the large number of companies that fail to make such a clear distinction; chances are, they’re not nearly as successful.)

The reason for this is simple: When it comes to social games, people are buying an experience. Whenever they spend real money on virtual goods for games, it’s to enhance their experience with those games. Playfish prioritizes that experience, and it shows.

Eric Ries hit it on the head when he wrote on his blog that everyone — not just social gamers — buys virtual goods. His real-world examples include $200 designer jeans that sell for four times the amount of a comparable pair without the label. It’s the experience of buying and wearing the jeans — the feeling one gets from the process of owning them — behind the bulk of the purchase price.

Successful companies are able to promote that feeling, especially when it comes to social gaming. As Playfish just proved, giving users an authentic, differentiated experience that they feel good about isn’t just integral to the bottom line — it is the bottom line.

Congratulations to the Playfish team for their success!

Once upon a time, this country ran on an agrarian economy – people grew, raised and mined things, then sold them. That gave way to an industrial economy, in which manufactured goods dominated. Over the last half-century we’ve had a service-based economy, hinging on the personalization of products.

Now, though, we’ve shifted again – or so says Joseph Pine in his book, “The Experience Economy.”

As the title suggests, Pine says that what people want now is experiences – moments that surround them and make them feel good. It’s why people go to Disneyland or Las Vegas for staged experiences, or online for experiences of a different type. People are essentially buying time, plus the feeling that a place or a company can give them during that time.

Take coffee, said Pine during his talk at the TED conference in Los Angeles in early 2009. Beans can be purchased for pennies; slightly more if someone goes through the effort of roasting them for you. Places like the corner diner that brew it can raise the price to a dollar or so per cup.

So how can a place like Starbucks get away with $4 lattes?

It’s because they’re giving you an experience every time you walk in the door. You get the decor and the clientele — whatever it is that makes it a uniquely Starbucks experience.

This is the driving force behind social gaming. Outsiders express disbelief when they hear about people spending real money for virtual goods and services (a gun in Mafia Wars, a tractor in Barn Buddy), but they don’t realize is that it’s not the goods themselves that people covet, it’s the experience that those goods will help them have online. The goods – and the virtual currency with which they buy them – merely enable that experience, that entertainment.

These same outsiders call these games escapism, and maybe they are – but they’re still authentic experiences. Gamers sign up for specific reasons; either their conditions are met or they move on to a different game.

And authenticity, Pine told the TED audience, “is becoming the new consumer sensibility – the buying criteria by which consumers are choosing who they are going to buy from, and what they’re going to buy.”

It only makes sense: The more authentic the experience – in the case of social gaming, the more immersion a game can provide – the more likely that people with stick with it, and subsequently spend money there. This experience is foremost the core element to building your virtual economy.

Social Gold helps you convey an authentic social-gaming experience, by keeping players within your game’s parameters to complete transactions (such as purchasing virtual currency for that online gun or tractor) instead of sending them into a new window, which brings them entirely out of the experience they’re seeking, then forcing them to re-load their game upon returning.

It’s a mechanism for users to plug in real money, bringing in revenue for you. And when it comes to real money, you must ensure that you make the user’s transactional experience as smooth and quick as possible. This is where Social Gold can help – enabling you to bring money in, securely, safely and with ease, all within the game experience.

After all, whether it’s developers or gamers, we’re in this business to help people get the kind of experience they’re looking for.