--- description: The social-networking site wants your money — and your friend's mailing address title: Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92f045d7d3a43209/698a48194ee2624df331c9c2/360_lfacebook_0215.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real by [Dan Fletcher](/author/dan-fletcher-and-olivia-b-waxman/) Feb 15, 2010 5:00 AM CUT  QuickHoney for TIME by [Dan Fletcher](/author/dan-fletcher-and-olivia-b-waxman/) Feb 15, 2010 5:00 AM CUT I sent my ex-girlfriend roses on Facebook. Not a photo or some cartoonish image of roses — these were the real deal, complete with glass vase, petals and thorny connotations. The whole thing cost precisely 534 Facebook credits — or $53.40 — and took me about 30 seconds. No shopping cart, no checkout. I didn’t even need to input her shipping address, which is good, since she won’t tell me where she lives. I’m part of the generation that thinks privacy is passé. Send me a friend request? We’re friends now. Poke my profile? I’ll poke yours back. But using your profile to send you real things I have to pay for with Facebook’s alternative currency? That might be the biggest leap of faith yet. [(See the top 10 Facebook stories of 2009.)](https://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379%5F1944827,00.html "undefined") In August the social-networking giant started rolling out the ability to send real-life gifts by going to the same digital wall on which a member would jot a note to a friend. (First-time users have to input credit- or debit-card info to obtain Facebook credits. Think of them as Chuck E. Cheese tokens for a digital generation.) Once the purchase is complete, the recipient gets a notification on her wall to show off to all her friends, and if she provides her address to the third-party vendor, the gift shows up on her doorstep a few days later. Giving gifts on Facebook is nothing new: since 2007, analysts estimate that users have spent more than $50 million to send virtual presents that are basically online stickers to put on profile pages. Facebook has developed its own currency, worth 10¢ per unit, and plans to take a cut as people on the site start buying everything from online games to off-line gifts for every possible occasion. [(See five Facebook no-nos for divorcing couples.)](https://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1903789%5F1903786,00.html "undefined") The expansion into tangible goods was the brainchild of RealGifts, a start-up that three Web developers launched with a $25,000 grant from Facebook. It has partnered with vendors to offer such things as flowers, hams and Slankets (sorry, [Snuggies](https://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1924078,00.html "undefined")), and there’s a broader array in the pipeline. RealGifts co-founder Tommy Sanguinetti touts the convenience factor: the entire shopping experience is contained on Facebook. Quick and easy. “People who get it love it,” he says. To test out the new feature, I ordered bouquets for three of the most challenging targets I could think of: my mom (who I predicted wouldn’t know how to accept it), my ex-girlfriend (who I predicted wouldn’t want it) and — since Sanguinetti mentioned that people have used the service to reach out to celebrities — country-music star Taylor Swift (because, well, one can only hope). The results? My mom, still a Facebook neophyte, accepted her arrangement almost immediately, although I soon destroyed any goodwill by telling her I thought her flowers would have sat wilting in a warehouse for several months before she figured out how to get them. (She replied, “Why do you think I’m not intelligent enough to figure this out, Dan? That’s a bit disconcerting.”) Sorry, Mom. The reaction from my ex was worse. She managed to delete the notification from her Facebook wall in — I timed this — less than a minute. She told me later, amid much profanity, that there was “No way” she’d have the flowers delivered, because she didn’t want to explain they were from her “weirdo ex-boyfriend.” RealGifts assures me refunds are possible. And what about Ms. Swift? I managed to track down what (I think) is her actual Facebook profile and requested to add her as a friend. She has yet to accept, and therein lies the rub: without a friend connection, there’s no way to send a gift. So we should totally be Facebook friends, Taylor. I guarantee there will be some flowers in it for you. Or a ham. Take your pick. [See the top iPhone applications.](https://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1823107,00.html "undefined") [Become a fan of TIME on Facebook.](https://www.facebook.com/time "undefined") Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690684/gift-giving-on-facebook-gets-real/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690684/gift-giving-on-facebook-gets-real/"},"headline":"Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real","datePublished":"2010-02-15T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T17:13:03.657Z","description":"The social-networking site wants your money — and your friend's mailing address","url":"https://time.com/archive/6690684/gift-giving-on-facebook-gets-real/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92f045d7d3a43209/698a48194ee2624df331c9c2/360_lfacebook_0215.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Fletcher","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-fletcher-and-olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92f045d7d3a43209/698a48194ee2624df331c9c2/360_lfacebook_0215.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_lfacebook_0215.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"QuickHoney for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690684/gift-giving-on-facebook-gets-real/","name":"Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real"}}]}] ```