So, I'm getting ready to do research on the new gifting economy, when I spotted an interesting offer on Facebook. Today, they released a "limited edition" digital gift inspired by the "Dramatic Chipmunk (Prairie Dog) viral video." (To see the one-minute version of that video, go here). What's the gift? It's a digital image of the beloved prairie dog that you can post on your friend's profile page. The price to you, the gifter? One dollar. Facebook plans to sell 20,000.
OK, I don't know how much Facebook paid the artist -- nor how much it costs to load the images -- but I'm pretty confident it can't be much. There's gotta be a near 100% profit margin for Facebook's virtual gifting business. They are not the first to do this kind of thing, but with their targeted mass-market audience, they may be the first to popularize it.
But the best part of this promotion? The idea that there's a "limited edition" -- like they're gonna run out of these things. Priceless.
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