Plink has launched a Facebook Credits-based loyalty program that rewards Facebook members for dining and making purchases at restaurants and offline retailers. Members join at Plink.com through Facebook Connect, then register the credit or debit card of their choice, and begin earning Facebook Credits by dining-out or making purchases at participating national restaurants and offline retailers.

Participating restaurants in the loyalty program include Dunkin’ Donuts, Quiznos, Red Robin and Taco Bell among others. Restaurants and offline retailers pay Plink a percentage of the sales generated by Plink members.

Significant Market

Although virtual currencies are still a work in progress, they represent a significant market. The global market for mobile virtual goods and premium subscriptions is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2016, according to Juniper Research.

Facebook As Bank

Forbes.com makes the case that Facebook is becoming a defacto bank quoting Edward Castronova, a telecommunications professor at Indiana University, who has been studying the economics of online games and virtual worlds for a decade. Castronova calculates the Facebook Credits ecosystem can't be any bigger than Barbados’s economy but if the definition of digital goods keeps widening, though, he tells the publication, "this could be the start of something big."

Marketing Scenarios

Marketing campaigns are particularly well suited to the use of Facebook Credits, especially as new platforms such as Plink continue to emerge. Last year viewers of Sky Network’s Got to Dance were able to vote in the show using Facebook Credits thanks to a pilot between Mobile Interactive Group and the social network platform.

The possibilities are almost endless, says Brett King, author of Bank 2.0, in another Forbes article. "For example, every time you take a poll, watch an advertisement, or tell your friends about a purchase you made, you could receive Credits from that company that would then be redeemable for goods or discounts."