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Today there was an interesting article in TechCrunch, a blog that reports on internet products and companies. Gaia Online CEO Craig Sherman will be attending the Virtual Goods Summit at Stanford University this Friday, along with representatives from other websites involve virtual goods including NeoPets and HabboHotel amongst others.
There's some really interesting information in the article about virtual goods in general ('virtual goods' meaning items which are buyable and tradeable do not exist physically, such as Gaia's Monthly Collectibles and items), but here's a few quotes that mention Gaia directly:
TechCrunch
Gaia Online does over 50,000 person to person auctions and 1 million message board posts a day- making them the 3rd largest auction site and the 2nd largest message board on the Internet. Their average user consumes 1200 page views a month. They employ 3 people whose sole job it is to open snail mail envelopes full of cash that people send in for virtual goods.
Interesting point about people whose sole job is opening envelopes of money - I have to wonder if that's an exaggeration or not? Something similar was mentioned in Sherman's recent interview with GigaOM, and personally I felt the comment seemed a bit callous, laughing over kids spending their few dollars on virtual goods sweatdrop
There was also reference to the recent sponsorship with Scion, and from this quote it seems that other social networks are using similar techniques to promote sponsors through their virtual goods.
TechCrunch
Major mainstream brands are now buying advertising in the form of virtual goods in social networks. Gaians can now purchase and pimp their virtual Scion xBs. Coca Cola and Tencent partnered to allow Tencent’s users to trade codes taken from real Coke cans for virtual objects in the Tencent network. Wangyou, a Chinese based social network, has also been extremely aggressive in experimenting with branded virtual goods.
No mention of 'sellout' Neopets' advertising efforts though, which I found interesting.
Topics in the Virtual Goods Summit include:
Quote:
* How will virtual goods and virtual currencies impact social networking?
* Are virtual goods the next big business model?
* What does it take to successfully launch a virtual goods offering?
* Are virtual goods poised to go mainstream?
* What does it take to nurture and develop a successful virtual economy?
* Why are users embracing virtual goods?
* Are virtual goods the next big business model?
* What does it take to successfully launch a virtual goods offering?
* Are virtual goods poised to go mainstream?
* What does it take to nurture and develop a successful virtual economy?
* Why are users embracing virtual goods?
Currently there is no mention of podcasts being released after the event, but other interesting tidbits I glean that relate to Gaia will be posted to this journal, so if this is your thing watch out for that wink
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