When Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) announced its gift giving initiative, the goal was to turn a profit in a fun and clever way. - Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Instead of relying solely on the profits of weak, poorly targeted ads, Facebook decided to start selling physical items. Now

AmazonAMZN

is joining the fray with digital gift cards. The online retail giant is letting users attach $1, $5, $10 or $25 digital gift cards to their birthday messages on Facebook. While that might sound like small potatoes to an Amazon shopper, the company is making it easy for friends to jump in and contribute gift cards after the first one appears on a user's Facebook page. Thus, consumers with generous friends could end up with a massive amount of gift cards. To get the program started, Amazon is providing gift-givers with

$3 of in-store credit

. There are a few

conditions

, however:

"You must have connected your Amazon customer account to your Facebook account to purchase a gift through Amazon Birthday Gift."
"The promotional credit you qualify for will be automatically applied to your Amazon customer account no later than 5 days after the end of the promotional period."
"The promotional credit will be reflected as a $3 savings on the Review Your Order page on qualifying orders."
"The promotional credit may only be applied to physical products shipped from and sold by Amazon.com, and excludes digital downloads and gift card purchases."
"Your promotional credit expires at 11:59 PM PDT on August 11, 2013."
"If items purchased with the promotional credit are returned, the amount of the promotional credit used to purchase such items will be subtracted from your return credit."
"The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be resold."
"The promotional credit may not be combined with other Amazon Birthday Gift offers."
"If you violate any of these Terms and Conditions, the promotion will be invalid."
"Limit one per customer, Amazon customer account, and Facebook account."
"Void where prohibited."
"Amazon reserves the right to modify or cancel the promotion at any time."

In addition to the new gift-giving program, Amazon has also announced that Kindle FreeTime Unlimited has amassed a collection of

more than 1,000

books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows. This milestone was achieved in just six weeks. Unlike the videos displayed through Amazon Prime, FreeTime Unlimited can be purchased without a Prime account. Prime subscribers will pay a lower monthly fee, however -- $2.99 for one child or $6.99 for an entire family. Without Prime, FreeTime Unlimited subscribers will pay $4.99 per child or $9.99 per family -- making it $2 more expensive than

NetflixNFLX

Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ

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