Los Angeles –– With the Cyber Monday marks the begging of holiday season, the social network continues to bolster its gifting service. Facebook and Apple are joining their massive forces again, making it even easier to send the gift of iTunes this holiday season by adding iTunes digital gift cards to Facebook Gifts, prompting cheers from last-minute shoppers across the U.S.
With the recent romance, the social media giant is encouraging Facebook users to send iTunes digital gifts–essentially using an online gift cards–people can now use its Facebook Gifts service to send each other credit for iTunes, the digital Apple store for music, movies and other digital content.
In fact, this astounding association brings Facebook Gifts up to a very real existence once again, reminding us that you are able to not just give your friends a bunch of digital stickers, but real-world physical gifts like cookies and ice cream. What better way to tell your buddy you love them than with digital cash given through your favorite social network?.
iTunes on Facebook (Credit: Facebook)
A user can search and send a specific song, album, movie, game, or apps you know your friend has been longing for, or just let them decide. Or, recommend an album, movie, game, or app available in the iTunes Store in denominations of $10, $15, $25, or $50.
More so, some Facebook gifts are as queer as a pair of chopsticks while others are as fabulous as a jar of cookies–literally. Most of the items given away by people working with Facebook Gifts are simple and small–fitting in perfectly with the iTunes Gift Card way of giving. It is the perfect “everyone wants one of these” gifts. And from Apple’s perspective, it is the gift that keeps on giving.
Another nifty feature bundled is, now when you go to a friend’s profile or click their birthday reminder, you will see a birthday cake icon that you can click to begin the process of buying them a present through Facebook Gifts.
The Menlo Park social media company in recent weeks has been steadily bolstering up its Gifts service for the holiday season. The company in September introduced the ability to send real gifts via the Internet such as Starbucks cards and GUND teddy bears. Gift notifications can be posted to another user’s Timeline, or sent privately.
The social media giant has been adding more companies and products to its service over the last two months, and iTunes is its biggest catch yet. Also, earlier this month, Facebook’s Gifts page got a little bulkier when new retail partners joined, including BabyGap, Brookstone, Dean & Deluca, Lindt Chocolate, Random House, and others.
Fortunately, for those in the spirit of giving, Facebook also recently introduced its charitable contributions feature, with partners including the American Red Cross, Blue Star Families, Boys & Girls Club of America, DonorsChoose.org, Girls Inc., Kiva, Livestrong, Oxfam America, RAINN, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and Water.org.
However, Apple has always maintained that it operates iTunes slightly above break-even, so the storefront does not chip-in a lot to the bottom line. Besides, this new offering is not a particularly huge win for Apple, although it will certainly help the iTunes business.
The social network’s move to add Apple to its retail partner list for Facebook Gifts boasts a newly more integral part of the iOS experience, it is only fitting that Apple would continue to add more of its services and connections in with Facebook for all.
Nevertheless, Apple’s iTunes is the latest entertainment vendor to enable gift giving via Facebook gifts, following the likes of Hulu Plus, Pandora, and Rdio. Now we have got to decide if it feels too impersonal to get a gift card without actually getting the plastic. Such is the intricacy of holiday gift giving!