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Points International Ltd., owner and operator of Points.com, the world’s leading reward management portal, is pleased to announce an agreement with Microsoft for Microsoft® Points to join the Points.com portal.
Microsoft Points is a system that enables consumers to store value in their account and then redeem for digital goods or exchange via Points.com. Microsoft Points launched in November 2005 with Xbox Live® allowing users to purchase premium content from Xbox Live Marketplace with Microsoft Points.
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By joining with Points.com, Microsoft will be allowing its users to gain access to a broad range of valuable redemption opportunities in areas such as travel and brand named retail goods.
Microsoft Points are the “currency of Xbox Live Marketplace” which we’ve mentioned previously here and here as an attractive way to enable purchasing for the varied Xbox audience. But you have to buy them at a retail store or via credit card online, so it’s not clear what the advantage is in taking them over to Points.com and redeeming them for non-Xbox merchandise. Could it be that Microsoft has additional plans for Microsoft Points?
January 27th, 2007 at 10:44 PM
[...] What Mr. Gates describes is a micropayments system rather like Microsoft Points which started out as the popular “currency” of the Xbox Live Marketplace, but since has spread to the Zune Marketplace and general merchandise. Heck, maybe it is Microsoft Points. In any case, the report will give the folks at eBay’s PayPal and Google Checkout something to think about it. Filed under Executives, Coopetition, Bill Gates, Xbox, Google, eBay, Microsoft, PayPal, Argo, Zune [...]