Comments on: Real Growth in The Virtual World

By: dshiao

dshiao — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:24:10 +0000

Zynga, a provider of multi-player web-based games, apparently had $50MM in 2008 revenue, primarily from the sale of virtual goods:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/time-to-stop-laughing-selling-virutal-goods-zynga-profits-on-50-million-revenues

By: dshiao

dshiao — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:59:53 +0000

Cory Ondrejka, former CTO of Linden Lab, projects steady growth in Second Life in 2009:

http://ondrejka.blogspot.com/2009/01/predictions-for-2009.html

By: dshiao

dshiao — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:05:37 +0000

Another angle to this is real world to virtual world product integration (and sales). Check out what Disney has done with their Pixie Hollow virtual world, tying it in with product sales of Disney Clickables Fairy Charms (similar model to Webkinz). Relevant article here:

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/10/disneys-pixie-h.html

By: dshiao

dshiao — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:10:16 +0000

Good point. My hypothesis, though, is that difficult economic times may facilitate business in virtual worlds. After all, delivering something like “more fun” (at a low cost) should be easy to achieve.

By: rightasrain

rightasrain — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:27:30 +0000

entertainment is classically counter-cyclical, but that doesn’t mean that people will automatically spend more money in virtual worlds. In fact, the hours are increasing in SL, but the number of people spending money inworld is declining slightly. This is probably due to lack of new users in SL and the existing users have bought enough stuff already.

Big issue in difficult economic times to deliver real value to consumers–so even virtual stuff has to deliver–something like more fun, more status, more power.

By: dshiao

dshiao — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:35:04 +0000

Interesting quote from a NY Times article by CLAIRE CAIN MILLER: "Instead, investors are looking for sites that make money in ways other than selling ads, like selling subscriptions or virtual goods. Selling 50-cent costumes for online avatars might not seem to be much of a revenue model, but pennies add up."

By: dshiao

dshiao — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:03:34 +0000

In a Marketing Voices podcast hosted by Jennifer Jones, IMVU CEO Cary Rosenzweig notes that his company is generating $1MM per month from the sale of virtual goods. Quite impressive.

By: A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall « Second Life Shrink

A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall « Second Life Shrink — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:21:15 +0000

[...] everyone is downbeat though. Dennis wants to convince us (and perhaps himself) that the virtual economy is likely to grow in 2009. Perhaps not coincidentally, Dennis is in the business of organising virtual trade [...]