Facebook: Google charges '5% because they don't have any users'

In my alley, them's fightin' words. The words came from the mouth of Facebook Director of Games Partnerships Sean Ryan during an event last week, Fortune reports. More specifically, Ryan is referring to the fact that Google takes just a 5 percent cut in revenues from developers with games hosted on its fresh Google+ social platform. Compare that to Facebook's whopping 30 percent through its Facebook Credits payment system, and you can see why Ryan would have such strong words for Google.

According to Fortune, Ryan likened Google's entry into the social games space to when McDonald's entered the premium coffee biz, where Starbucks has reigned supreme. (Fortune also cleverly points out that coffee has been huge for Mickey D's.) Google launched Google+ Games just last week with support from several major developers including Zynga, EA (and PopCap) and Wooga--three of the largest Facebook game developers today.

And Fortune reports that Google+ already has 25 million registered users, so it's growing rather quickly. Regardless, Google still has a ways to go in the face of Facebook's gargantuan 750 million-strong user base, not to mention a whopping 270 million monthly social gamers. If anything, it's simply amusing to see Facebook squirm ... at least just a little bit. Let's just wait and see if Google+ Games can turn those squirms into shivers.

[Image Credit: Content Crossroads]

Do you think Facebook's Sean Ryan was right in saying this? Do you think Google+ Games has a chance to compete with Facebook? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.