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(source: http://www.techcrunch.com)

Hi5 is the first major social networking site to launch a universal currency in the US with Facebook soon to follow. Chinese social networking sites, such as Tencent, have been profiting from this model for quite some time. The implications of a universal currency are much larger than just profit for these sites. Maybe even more significant is the potential increase in revenue the game developers on these platforms can expect. This week Hi5 announced a partnership with RockYou, the first major partnership of it’s kind. RockYou has agreed to accept Hi5 coins on their Pets game, a major step for both parties.

Users ability to purchase currency in bulk and the ability to spend it on all the games on each platform is obviously the wave of the future. It is only a matter of time before Facebook fully launches their virtual currency and Myspace follows suit. This will benefit both the sites and developers. Sites can finally tap into the huge revenues their open platforms are generating. The developers benefit from users trust of the brand name of the site, and the ability for users to easily obtain currency that can be spent on their games in bulk. This way, users don’t have to continuously transact on multiple games

The real question is, who will enter the market and create a universal  currency that is redeemable across multiple platforms? With Facebook game developers porting their games across platforms, it would only make sense to have a currency that can be spent across these platforms, especially because there is no doubt that you will see more huge platforms evolve in this space. How long until Google, Yahoo and Microsoft succeed in copying the model that has been so successful on Facebook and Myspace? Whoever decides to create this truly universal currency may have a billion-dollar business on their hands.