PlaySpan says there are 50 ways to pay for your lover’s virtual flowers

Buying your love a virtual rose is a happening thing to do these days on social networks such as Facebook. And now there are 50 ways for you to pay for it.

PlaySpan is launching today its Ultimate Payment Wall. It’s a web page that offers lots of different payment methods, from PayPal to credit cards to other currencies, that will make it more convenient for consumers to buy virtual goods, or digital objects such as roses that are embedded in games or social networking apps. They can buys apps with one click.

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Santa Clara, Calif.-based PlaySpan says that the Spare Change Ultimate Payment Wall will also lift a burden from developers. That’s because it’s a single piece of code that they can insert into their applications and thereby drive revenue growth. Otherwise, they would have to figure out how to integrate dozens of different payment systems themselves.

As such, it fits with PlaySpan’s strategy of taking the pain out of virtual goods transactions and providing one-stop service for game developers and publishers who aren’t experts at virtual economics. Spare Change, a payment company that PlaySpan bought in April, helped development the payment wall.

Virtual goods on Facebook are expected to hit as much as $500 million in revenue this year. And last week, Magid & Associates and PlaySpan released a survey that said 12 percent of Americans have bought a virtual good in the past 12 months. Worldwide virtual goods revenues, which include hot markets in China and Korea, could hit $1.8 billion in 2009.

The newfangled payment systems cater to younger consumers who are more comfortable paying with new types of currencies. John Fan, co-founder of Cardinal Blue Software and designer of the Friend Stock and Travel Balloon apps on Facebook, says it’s easy to add the Ultimate Payment Wall to his apps. It has a clean layout and has already made an impact on his business during a trial period. Ultimate Payment Wall can be used in 30 countries.

PlaySpan has raised $20 million in venture capital and its virtual goods system is used in more than 1,000 online games, virtual worlds and social networks. Spare Change is used across 700 apps on social networks Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.