Aha! I get it now! Microsoft / Facebook
Microsoft’s $240 million investment in Facebook suddenly made more sense to me.
Facebook can’t monetize. Microsoft has a micropayment system (Microsoft Points) already in place. How many Xbox 360 Live users are on Facebook already? Switch on the micropayment system and all of those users have a micropayment wallet ready to spend.
The Zune users are also part of the Microsoft Points universe, but I don’t know how many of them there are. They both tie into the same system.
This could be huge, and I haven’t seen this discussed. Perhaps this is what this strategic investment is about? Or maybe I’m just full of myself.