Facebook still working on its virtual currency

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Talk may be cheap, but that’s pretty much all Facebook Inc. had to show for its virtual currency, called Facebook Credits, at its annual developers conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The currency is Facebook’s bid to make money from the virtual goods and transactions market. It can be used to pay for virtual items particularly in social games such as those made by Zynga Inc. and Playdom Inc. It has not yet been rolled out to many developers. The currency is in beta testing with about 10 partners, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said during his keynote address.

Asked about Facebook credits during a press conference after the speech, Zuckerberg said: “We’re doing this primarily for developers, not primarily for us any time soon.”

Facebook will net a 30% cut of transactions, according to Deb Liu, the Facebook executive working on the currency.

Zuckerberg did not say when Facebook Credits would launch.

-- Jessica Guynn