Facebook partners with MOL Global for Facebook Credits

Following the news that Malaysian digital payment development company MOL Global fully acquired Friendster in December 2009, MOL AccessPortal, the wholly owned subsidiary of MOL Global, will now act as the payment provider for Facebook Credits (a virtual currency in the social networking portal).

To provide payment service for games and content in Asia, MOL and Facebook will team up to allow users to buy credits on Facebook with MOLPoints and through MOL.com.

This partnership is set to make payment easier for Facebook users, especially in Southeast Asia.

Users in the region, who were previously making online purchases through prepaid cards instead of credit cards, will be offered an offline prepaid model by MOL AccessPortal. To do this, Facebook and MOL will be launching co-branded gift cards at Malaysian and Singaporean outlets to attract redemption on Facebook Credits.

"Working with MOL means we can offer the benefits of Facebook Credits to millions of people in Asia using a payment system that is already widely used and trusted," said Vaughan Smith, director of business and corporate development at Facebook.

Jeremy Woolf, senior vice prseident of global social media practice lead at Text 100 Hong Kong agrees: "It [the partnership with MOL] will also support Facebook's growth strategy as it seeks to become the sole platform of choice for conversation, video, photos, events and now retail. Critically the widespread MOL Points system may help people in many Asian markets overcome their traditional reluctance to purchase online."

MOL currently provides credit points both online and in physical outlets such as 7-Eleven and cybercafes. It has more than 500,000 outlets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand.