Page 279 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

"Take Chinese toy company Dan Dan Man, which created Mon-Mon, a Bluetooth-enabled stuffed animal toy
that integrates WeChat with the offline world. Parents can use the Mon-Mon official account in WeChat to
send personal voice messages and pre-recorded English courses or bedtime stories to the toy while they are at
work or traveling. Kids immediately get those stories or messages, and can even press Mon-Mon’s belly to reply
to their parents’ WeChat account in a message delivered back as a voicemail. While this is just a toy — and
funnily enough, a character that started off as a popular digital sticker on WeChat! — it shows the potential
of integrating messaging platforms into the physical world." 17

I.3 Facebook games ecosystem
Social networks can seamlessly offer value throughout a merchant’s value chain. An early example of this full
suite of services is Facebook’s launch of its casual game platform. Facebook users could play Solitaire, Words
with Friends, Poker, Farmville, and other games while staying on the Facebook site. Facebook brings value to
all aspects of the game lifecycle, and in return receives 30 per cent of direct revenues (in-game purchases, etc.)
plus ancillary advertising revenue. Facebook has since expanded to iOS and Android games so that Facebook
generates advertising revenue when users install games and when game developers display in-game ads from
Facebook advertisers. Almost all of Facebook’s 2015 payments revenue of $849M came from games. Facebook
does not separate game-related advertising revenue. By having a platform-agnostic strategy (Facebook site,
iOS and Android), Facebook continued to monetize games, even as users shifted from Facebook.com to mobile
platforms. 18

Figure 16 – Shared value chain roles

I.4 Chat platforms

Social networks typically offer real-time messaging between users ("chat"). Because social networks are
investing heavily in chat as a commerce platform, this topic deserves special attention.

17 Ibid.
18 Facebook 10-K, Facebook developer website.

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