American Express Takes Its Mobile Wallet to FarmVille
American Express is now offering FarmVille residents a free Money Tree, which, among other things, turns from blue to a “glowing gold” and gives back Farm Cash when harvested, so that aspiring farmers can finally get the much needed tractor they’ve been putting off for so long. Moreover, along with the Money Tree come a digital wallet and a prepaid card and the possibility of earning even more Farm Cash by using them outside of FarmVille.
AmEx has achieved this feat by teaming up with FarmVille maker Zynga to launch the Zynga Serve Rewards, which is a program that is tied to AmEx’s Serve digital wallet and the linked prepaid card. The credit card company is promising to make the program available in other Zynga domains, such as Havering Manor in CityVille or A Super Clobber in CastleVille. But let’s focus our attention on the agricultural realm for now and see what we can make of the new Zynga payment program.
Zynga Serve Rewards
To participate in the new program, FarmVille players need to take the following actions:
- Sign up for Zynga Serve Rewards or convert their existing Serve account and receive a personalized Zynga Serve prepaid card.
- Place the free Serve Money Tree in their farm and begin to harvest it.
- Add money to the newly activated Serve account using a bank account, credit card, debit card, or cash with a GreenDot MoneyPak.
- Activate the prepaid card.
- Use the prepaid card anywhere American Express is accepted to receive 50 Farm Cash for the first 5 purchases of $25 or more through July 31, 2012.
Each of the above actions causes the Money Tree to change its color and earns the cardholder various amounts of Farm Cash. AmEx has plans to link its Zynga rewards program to the game maker’s own virtual currency, which could then be used for purchases in other Zynga games.
Something for Everyone
Whatever you may think of the concept of buying digitals ducklings, horses or cows to populate a virtual farm, there are millions of people who are doing it and I suspect that many of them will welcome the opportunity to get some of their farm’s equipment or livestock for free. And American Express’s Serve is a pretty good tool to help them do that. It comes with no monthly or usage fees and adding money via ACH or debit is also free (other funding methods are subject to a charge of 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction).?áThe linked prepaid card is among the best ones available on the market.
Zynga, for its part, can only benefit from a program that puts more virtual money into the hands of its customers. It may have agreed to fund a portion of the rewards program’s operating costs (we don’t know what the arrangement between Zynga and AmEx is), which would hurt the company’s profit margins, but if that is the case, evidently the calculation is that it is all worth it.
For AmEx, a popular game like FarmVille is the perfect tool for promoting its digital wallet and prepaid card and it provides yet another platform that can be used by the company to perfect its social media strategy, something it has been doing very actively. Just recently AmEx launched its Sync program, which enables cardholders to link their cards to Facebook, foursquare and Twitter and get various discounts in return. The initial response has been very positive, which has undoubtedly further emboldened AmEx.
The Takeaway
So there seems to be something for everyone involved in the Zynga Serve Rewards program and, by the way, that includes Facebook and I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention how the newly-public social network is involved in this thing. First of all, we shouldn’t forget that Facebook collects no less than 30 percent of the amount of each transaction that takes place on its domain. On aggregate, in 2011 Facebook collected $557 million in payment processing fees, which accounted for 15 percent of its revenues for the year, up from less than two percent in 2009. Most of these transaction fees were generated in games produced by Zynga. So what’s good for Zynga is good for Facebook.
Image credit: YouTube / Serve.
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I can’t believe that people are paying real money for virtual chickens and all these other things. I wish someone did a study on the age distribution of FarmVille players. I’d be interested to know how many of them are old enough to own a credit or prepaid card.
I think we may all be surprised by just how many in their 30s and older are paying for these “virtual farms.” The whole thing is ridiculous.
Come on, there is no need to get so self righteous about it. People go to FarmVille for fun, just as you may be watching Sports Center, which would be a great way to waste your time if you ask me.
“On aggregate, in 2011 Facebook collected $557 million in payment processing fees, which accounted for 15 percent of its revenues for the year, up from less than two percent in 2009.”
At this rate, in a couple of years Facebook will be getting most of its revenue from payment fees, not ads.
How can you possibly trust someone tending blue trees and purple cows with a credit card?
This is a prepaid card not a credit card and there is a difference. Using a prepaid card on FarmVille doesn’t get you in debt.
Zynga made more than $300 million in revenue from virtual goods in the last quarter alone. That is a huge amount. It tells you just how much money there is to be made in this market. No surprise that American Express is interested.
The Zynga deal shows you how amoral credit card companies are. AmEx knows perfectly well that most of the users of its FarmVille card will be young kids – remember that no credit check is required to get the card – who will be better off spending their money on other things, but they don’t care.
Neil, American Express is not the villain here, if there is one. If they started asking for IDs and other documents that are not required for prepaid cards you’d be complaining that they are making the process more difficult than it should be. And why are you singling out AmEx and not Facebook and Zynga, which will actually be making a lot more from this program than AmEx?
Isn’t it telling that most of Facebook’s payment fee revenue comes from the sales of digital tractors and goats? I don’t know how big this can possibly become but it seems to me that Facebook will need to find something more substantial if they will want to get investors to warm up to them.
This is a joke right? A FarmVille prepaid card… What’s next: a digital chicken for dinner?
The card isn’t just about farmville. It is also just a regular prepaid amex card. It’s actually not a bad deal. there are no fees for using it and there are also no fees for putting money on the card using a debit card. it may have a funny picture on it but it’s not a bad deal. you don’t have to ever play farmville and you certainly don’t have to buy any chickens or any other farm animals. Most prepaid cards charge a fee for putting money on the card and a fee for each transaction. this one doesn’t, so even if you don’t play farmville, and you’re looking for a prepaid card, you should really check out this card.