ReveNews
-
NAVIGATION
-
TOPICS
-
THE REVENEWS BLOGGERS
-
QUICK CONTACT
Virtual Chat Room Monetization: Micro-windfall or mega bucks?
Offerpal and IMVU have announced they are teaming up to monetize virtual chat rooms. While many people will grasp the potential of where this is leading, many more will question if this is a micro-windfall or a future of mega bucks. I believe that the answer is mega bucks, but with a caveat.
Way back in 1999 when working for Communities.com, we had virtual worlds for avatar chat, both in 2D and 3D with 3D audio. These products, The Palace and Onlive! had passionate users that not only created props (wearable/usable objects), avatars + their clothes, but also rooms & worlds. There was no way to pay for such things back then, but human innovation was not to be stopped. It turned out that users turned to eBay to list and sell in-world items, and the commerce mechanism of choice was PayPal.
Money was being made even then, and with virtual worlds sprouting up in niches to serve anyone who wants one, it’s another wild west ripe with revenue potential. We had top notch developers and web gurus at Communities.com, and our data showed some pretty obsessive dress-up and self-branding behavior that continues to be mimicked in the MySpace and physical worlds. Likewise, my experience in identity development and communities over the past 10 years suggests that this behavior should be expected and will not stop. Based on these few tidbits, the question isn’t if money will be made, but how much and by whom.
In the announcement, Offerpal explains they have been able to offer to publishers around $75 per 1,000 daily active users they bring to the application (see link above) and expect similar results with IMVU. I calculate that if IMVU’s five million uniques per month came ONLY once each month, the revenue would be $375,000 to IMVU, assuming Offerpal’s numbers turn out. If Offerpal takes 20% it would yield them $75,000 a month.
So is the caveat that the world owner, IMVU, makes the big bucks? Partially. Another caveat I see is patent trolls waiting to leap into this market. At Communities.com, we had five patents covering secure distributed objects; necessary evils to protect technical innovation. But this mean that secure distributed objects could be a true scarcity in the communities economies – a one of a kind signed poster from Taylor Swift could literally be one of a kind, with a certificate of authenticity. So as the monetization of virtual worlds moves forward, I’m waiting for those patents and current patent owners, to re-emerge and extract their take from the virtual world economy.
wow jennings is awesome!!