About avatars, again: the market of virtual goods
Posted by: Fidji SIMO in Innovation, Internet/Technology
Ok, I must be addicted… Thanks to a reader of this blog I have discovered Meez.com, a website to create animated avatars really easy to export. To be sincere, I don’t understand how I missed it until now: they have the largest and the most beautiful collection of virtual goods for avatars that I have ever seen, except on Second Life but the advantage is that most of them are free on Meez! On the other hand, although I have claimed many times that I think that buying virtual goods is a stupid thing, I must acknowledge that I bought those little cute wings… So if I end up by buying those goods, I am pretty sure that it will attract lots of people…And I have also bought virtual gifts on Facebook, and all my Facebook friends seem to really enjoy it! Ok, it seems that I am now a converted person!
The best article on the market of virtual goods can be found here. I particularly agree with the fact that virtual goods create a real value for people. On Facebook for example, especially for birthdays, it means “I won’t go through the pain of buying a cheap gift and pay expensive shipping to send it to you, but I care enough to give you a little something on your birthday; and this little gift displayed on your profile will show your network that your friends care”. On avatar services, the fact of buying additional items is just part of human narcissism: I really wanted my avatar to be really cute, and I have been caught by the great colors of these wings so the cheap price paid was worth the value. Besides, the fact of having a Paypal account make the transaction so quick that it removes all the hassle.
So what do you think? Will the market of virtual goods keep on booming? Will it be sufficient to make profitable “avatar services” without resorting to advertising?
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Thanks so much for the mention! I love those fairy wings, too.
It never hurts to take some time out for free virtual dress-up, does it? 
~M.
Thanks to you to have made me discovered Meez! I have noticed since then that it is a very well know website, but I missed it
Would be great to have a service converting virtual goods into real ones, so that I can really wear the great Meez clothes!
500% agree with you about the value of virtual goods.
And I am quite convince virtual goods will be a profitable market, facebook,
social networking, video games, there is a lot things to do.
Definitely! Stardoll opened today Starplaza, virtual shops allowing brands to insert their designs online and sell them on Stardoll: what a great idea!
Found on Myspace: IMVU. I have this feeling that a service of avatars is created every day…!
Apparently! This one is quite cool but I prefer Meez as they have much more stuff.
You know, I forgot to bring this up earlier, but you actually CAN buy some real life stuff on Meez! We did some clothes for Metropark that are pretty trendy:
http://www.meez.com/main.dm?speciesid=2&ic=595
Sorry, it’s for ladies only so far. :T
Check it out, though!
Oops, this is the link: http://www.meez.com/main.dm?speciesid=2&ic=479
I’m glad you brought this up, it’s great!
And I just noticed that you have a range of clothes for elections 2008, it’s really great to catch the wave