Speaking at the f8 developer conference in San Francisco, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has given studios an update regarding Facebook Credits, claiming the forthcoming in-platform currency is almost ready to go.

The new system will unify games that use virtual currency systems across the site, with users linking Facebook Credits to their bank account just once, rather than entering in their details for every transaction.

Facebook Credits is currently in the beta testing stage, with Zuckerberg stating more than 100 apps are currently putting the system through its paces.

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However, although the site plans to take 30 percent of purchases made using the currency, Zuckerberg told the conference that Facebook was driven to create the new system to appease the development community.

"You may not believe me when I say this. We are doing it for developers. But it's not a revenue opportunity any time soon," he told VentureBeat.

"Ads are a very good business. We are doing this for developers. With credits, it becomes easier for people to buy things across apps.

"Rather than being locked into one app that has their credit card, they can buy in any app. This is a canonical economics example where it makes sense to have a standard and have just one, or a few, and that ends up being better for everyone.

"There is a lot of overhead for us doing this ourselves. It's a lot of hard work. We don't expect it to be profitable for a period of time. We are doing this for developers."

[source: VentureBeat]