Years ago a new phenomenon in social networking came to the United States. It was called Cyworld. The premise as I remember it was to have users sign up and build a profile (alah facebook, myspace). The unique feature was the ability to customize your own personal virtual 'room', which was essentially a cartoony box that acted as the center piece for your profile. It was unique and people would comment on your room, could send you gifts, and do all sorts of other things I really do not remember now.
The kicker was these objects had to be purchase using real money. Not directly of course, but by paying x-dollars you could buy virtual currency (acorns) which was then used to purchase objects, people, animals (dolphin anyone?) for your room. Want to know what happened? See the picture below.
The idea just did not catch on in the US. Not too surprising if you ask me. I played around with Cyworld when it first came to the US and was in trial mode and could not see myself paying cash money to pretty up a page. Especially since there are a number of free alternatives.
Interestingly enough it is HUGE in Korea. The Korea CyWorld cite claims to have 25% of the population as users. Considering South Korea has 48 million people that is a significant following.
I know I wouldn't pay for the examples you gave. But I think as virtual worlds become more sophisticated, people will be willing to purchase more products.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, we're talking about bits and bytes here, so an mp3 is "virtual" music, and a video game a "virtual" game, and both are in high demand.
If the prodcuts offered in virtual worlds are are both attractive and not easy to duplicate, a market for them may spring up.
I think that as virtual worlds beome more
I would argue that mp3's (and video games) are not virtual in the sense that you can listen to the music (or play the game) in the real world after the purchase.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that a market for virtual goods will spring up, but I am hazy on the timeline.
I agree with KK, that I would consider music and video games not part of the virtual world. I would put them also in the same category as movies/shows that you can purchase and download. I think that is just making things more convenient for the consumer.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your post, I think I remember hearing about CyWorld, but that is as far as I got. I also could not imagine paying real money for a virtual good. One that I would not be able to enjoy unless I was in CyWorld.
I have noticed though that Facebook now offers users the ability to purchase a virtual gift. Now when it is a friend's birthday you can write on their wall and buy them a gift. I definitely write on friend's wall, but I don't know if I ever see myself buying a virtual gift.
Gotta agree with you guys, I can't see myself paying for virtual goods/gifts to use in virtual worlds (although I'm not really into virtual worlds). But we're all probably the wrong demographic for that, at least in this country. If younger kids derive satisfaction out of it somehow and buy things in facebook or other areas, perhaps it'll grow as a trend when they age.
ReplyDeleteI have a guilty pleasure of playing "superpoke pets" on facebook. You get a virtual pet, (I have a lamb named Lambchop), and you get to feed it, play with it, play with friends pets, and buy it toys, clothes, and food. There are two categories of things to buy: "coin" goods and "gold" goods. Gold is real money, while the coins you can earn through playing with your pet.
ReplyDeleteThe gold items are far cooler than the coin items. And the animosity towards the favoritism for those who pay is quite prevalent on the community discussion board. But much to my surprise, there are people who pay money for this stuff. I don't care how "cool" it gets, I would never put up real cash. Nice post.