Facebook's new rules lead to 10% reduction in social gamers

The top 10 of Facebook social game players change statistics on the May 12 midday news in Beijing, according to foreign media today, as Facebook banned social games from continuing to promote through the "notification" function, leading to a significant reduction in the number of players in social games. Earlier, Facebook had a rapport with major social-gaming companies. With Facebook's notification function, Farmville and other games can add tens of thousands of players a day. The games can also be profitable for users.　　Because game makers usually buy ads through Facebook, many of the profits of gaming companies can return to Facebook. But the situation has now changed. Last fall, Facebook told game developers that it would ban the use of notifications to promote games. The resolution came into force last March.　　Data show that more than 40% of new users of Facebook games are available through this channel. Facebook users welcome the move because it helps reduce spam, and Facebook can use it to tighten control of the entire platform, but insiders say the move is overdone.　　Because of the inability to continue with the notification feature, the total number of players per month in large social games has dropped by 10%, and there is still no sign of improvement. The latest data collected by Allfacebook and AppData show that since the implementation of the new policy, Farmville has lost more than 1 million players and reduced the total to 76.4 million.　　In the past one months alone, the top 10 Facebook games lost 30 million players, down about 10%. Not only that, Facebook also asked the game publishers to use Facebook credits as the only means of payment. Facebook can get a 30% commission from it. Executives at a big game publisher said they were furious at Facebook's credits, but dared not say.　　Industry insiders believe that Facebook seems to have no intention of using PayPal as an alternative payment, and game publishers believe that if they can only pay through Facebook credits, their revenues will fall even without considering Facebook's split. The industry believes that, given the inability of social game publishers to master rules and uncertainty about the future, Zynga plans to develop an independent platform for more initiative. Other social gaming vendors are expected to follow suit in the future. (PEI)