Category: Virtual Goods

Five Reasons Why People Send Virtual Gifts

Posted on June 23, 2009
Viximo logo VIRTUAL GOODS INSIDER — June 23 – Last year, Viximo, released its first product in partnership with BigDates Solutions, makers of the Birthday Calendar, one of small number of Verified Applications on Facebook. Viximo’s first product is a drop-in virtual gifting system that allows developers of social networks, apps, and other community based websites to add a virtual gifting based revenue stream to their businesses. When Facebook launched its Gifts program in Feb '07, many predicted that the program would be a dismal failure. During its first year, Facebook Gifts generated an estimated $15m revenue. People are willing to pay for virtual gifts. Women are responsible for 80% of virtual giftings while men are responsible for 20% of virtual giftings. Why are people giving virtual gifts?
- Virtual Gifts as Greeting Cards
– Virtual Gifts as Signals
- Virtual Gifts as Accolades - Virtual gifts can be used in the place of ratings as the basis for a reputation system.
- Virtual Gifts as Social Play
- Virtual Gifts as Reciprocation - People give gifts, in part, because they want to elicit a positive response from the recipient, and recipients tend to feel indebted to the giver until they have reciprocated in kind.
FULL ARTICLE @ VIRTUAL GOODS INSIDER

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Real Law Covers Virtual Gifts

Posted on June 22, 2009

Datecom logo LAW JOURNAL — June 22 – Date.com executives thought that allowing users to purchase tokens that could be redeemed as "gifts" of virtual flowers, chocolates or other items would be a great way for users to catch each others' eye, but they were uncertain of the legal considerations. Would Date.com be obligated to refund the cost of unused  tokens if users dropped off the site? Date.com has a policy that members who don't visit the site after 365 days are purged from its database. This is a  new area of social networking, and it really isn't specifically addressed in the law. The site needed to make the terms and conditions for purchasing the virtual gifts as clear as possible for users. For instance, users should know that if they violate the Web site's terms and their membership to Date.com is terminated, they also lose unused credits toward virtual gifts. Also the site's policy is to repeatedly e-mail individuals to warn them of pending deletion from the site if they don't access their accounts within a year. FULL ARTICLE @ LAW JOURNAL

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Virtual Goods Funding Tops $69 Million

Posted on June 15, 2009

Virtual goods picture CNET NEWS — June 14 – Start-ups peddling virtual goods raised $69m in funding in the first quarter of 2009.

First quarter 2009 financings:

    * IMVU – $10,000,000
    * ngmoco – $10,000,000
    * Nurien – $10,000,000
    * Offerpal Media – $15,000,000
    * Ohai – $6,000,000
    * OMGPOP – $5,000,000
    * OneSeason.com – $3,500,000
    * Scrapblog – $4,000,000
    * Viximo – $5,000,000
    * Three Melons – $600,000

The full article was originally published at CNet, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Viximo is helping iDating and social networking companies capitalize on virtual goods, and are a sponsor of Online Personals Watch and Social Networking Watch.

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New Site Sponsor, Viximo

Posted on May 22, 2009

Viximo logo OPW — May 22 — Viximo is a new Online Personals Watch site sponsor.  They offer a virtual goods platform suitable for Internet Dating sites. Cyworld and QQ alone make hundreds of millions of dollars from virtual goods. Asia loves virtual goods, and Americans are turning on to them. Facebook and Hotornot are two success stories to reference in the U.S. market. I'm told, two of the most important factors for making virtual goods work on a site are: 1. really great virtual goods, and 2. the right pricing and handling of money and virtual money. Viximo can help. We're excited about virtual goods, and virtual currency and proud to have Viximo as a sponsor. As always, we vet our sponsors. No fluff is allowed on OPW. We recommend taking a look at Viximo.

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News – 5 Mins

Posted on May 4, 2009

Online Personals Watch News Summary, May 1st, 2009

Meetic tops in UK. Public health professionals turn to social networks to help combat HIV/AIDS. White Label Dating moves up. Viximo introduces modular virtual goods platform for the web and iPhone. iovation introduces risk assessment module. Diller eyes Yahoo Personals. IAC Q1 results out, subscription base up 6%, but revenue down due to exchange rates.

Viximo Repositions As Content Provider With New CEO And $5M In Funding

Posted on April 29, 2009

Viximo logo VIRTUAL WORLD NEWS — Apr 29 – Viximo has restructured, with some employees let go last month and former CEO Rob Frasca replaced by Dayna Grayson (of Viximo investor North Bridge Venture Partners) as acting CEO. Viximo closed a new round $5m round of funding from North Bridge and Sigma. Perhaps most importantly, the company is refocusing itself around a new virtual goods strategy: providing content for partners to sell.

The full article was originally published at Virtual World News, but is no longer available.

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Viximo Unveils Modular Virtual Goods Platform

Posted on April 29, 2009

Viximo logo BUSINESS WIRE — Apr 29 — Viximo, a leading provider of virtual goods services to social networks, online dating and casual gaming sites, today introduced its new modular virtual goods platform for the web and iPhone. For the first time, this “a la carte” offering will allow publishers to selectively choose from Viximo’s core services including access to its premium content library produced by Viximo’s network of 3,000 independent creators, an interactive digital storefront, merchandise payment systems and detailed analytics. The company also announced new partnerships with social networking sites wadja.com, booksie.com, and ibeatyou.com. Viximo currently reaches more than 20 million unique monthly visitors through its network of more than a dozen web publishers. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Summary – 5 Mins

Posted on April 11, 2009

Online Personals Watch News Summary #2, April 10, 2009

This weeks news covers the rise of philandering, virtual goods companies making $500m+, mobile dating to hit $1.4b in 2013, banner ad blindness, lock and key and events, online speed dating and a survey of fussy singles.

Three Japanese, Korean Virtual Worlds Generated Over $510M

Posted on April 7, 2009
Plus8star logo VIRTUALGOODSNEWS — Mar 31 – Plus Eight Star Ltd's "From Virtual Worlds to the 3D Web: Online Communities In China, Asia, and the World", an EU-China Information Project, sponsored overview of virtual worlds. It contains 2008 revenue for two major Japanese and one Korean virtual goods businesses that are not online games. Together, they generated $510m through virtual goods sales in 2008.

    * Cyworld, Korea: $200m in 2008 revenues, 22m registered users, valuation unknown.
    * Mobile Game Town, Japan: $250m in 2008 revenues, 12.6m registered users, valuation $1.4 billion.
    * Gree, Japan: $60m in 2008 revenues, 8m registered users, valuation $1.2 billion.

The full article was originally published at VirtualGoodsNews, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: How is your dating site using virtual currency?  How do you think you could make more money by using virtual currencies?

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VCs Turn Cautious And Focus On The Short Term

Posted on January 9, 2009

NY TIMES — Jan 5 — The days, when Venture capitalists poured money into Web sites that were free to users and that made money selling advertisements, are over. Instead, investors are looking for sites that make money in ways other than selling ads, like selling subscriptions or virtual goods. Investors are not convinced that selling ads or content like applications on mobile phones can make much money for them.

The full article was originally published at NY Times, but is no longer available.