Virtual Economy and Virtual Goods

The real economy might be in the doldrums, but the virtual economy is never better. Virtual products being bought and sold is nothing new to most of you, especially with the success of Second Life from Linden. Lets put into prospective how virtual products are actually becoming critical mass, Habbo Hotel sold more virtual furniture than Ikea did in real life!…over $60 million bucks! That is the claim off a statistic from Viximo site. The reality is Habbo was clearing over $77 million bucks in 2006 in products that do not exist anywhere except servers susceptible to crashes and viruses.

Remember when Disney plunked down $700M for Club Penguin in 2007. At the Habbo numbers that would be 10x earnings. Not a bad investment in a high growth sector where the business models align. That will probably become more potent like 5x by 2010 (only $350 million was cash purchase anyway). But I digress, let’s get back to why you care about this.

How the heck can an everyday Startup Addict or entrepreneur jump in on this?

Viximo is the answer and will help you monetize your brand in this arena. Rather than sound like a parrot here is the quote from Viximo in their words:

Viximo is the only digital goods platform that connects content creators, brands and publishers across the Internet. Viximo enables content creators like you to create compelling digital goods and upload them for distribution across Viximo’s network of online and mobile communities. It basically works like this: You upload and track your good in Viximo’s Creator Community. People buy and send your items to their friends via Facebook apps, social networks, gaming sites and more. And you rake in the royalties! Yep, you get 20% of every sale of your items. Maybe not enough to buy an island but it might just support your coffee addiction.

Question is can they really do it?

The company claims to offer the following:

* Capture imagination and build loyalty with viral digital goods.
* Work with you to create a cross-platform campaign with multiple points of distribution online, including Facebook and the iPhone®.
* Leverage our world-class creator community, hand-selected to compete in this marketplace.
* Provide in-depth data and analytics to measure your success.

The fourth bullet point should probably be the first….giving solid metrics in a new or unknown space for brands is worth its weight in Gold and everyone will start to drink the Kool aid if done properly. More importanly, if the 20% royalties start to add up….that’s all the metrics you need!