Real money, virtual product

The premise of buying virtual product with real money is quite intriguing.  But I do not feel it is a trend that will catch on quickly, or in mass scale.  At least not in the United States.

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.

Who REALLY uses LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is currently touting that they have over 60 million members, but I truly wonder how many of these users are active.

I consider myself the typical user.  I signed up for the account a few years back at the suggestion of some colleagues, built a simple profile and added a few connections... then did virtually nothing.  Every few months I become re-inspired to update my profile, respond to some invites and send some more to new connections.  As far as I can tell all this has done is give me a professional web presence that I really do not use for anything meaningful!

Realizing a significant amount of my time has gone into building my profile and connections over the years it is now time to take action and see what LinkedIn can do for me.  I would like to hear real world, personal responses for how LI has helped or will help you in your career.  Hopefully your responses will send me down the path to enlightenment.

For those not aware of what LinkedIn is, here is a 2 minute video introduction:

What Social Network Fits You Best?

Ran across an interesting blog asking the same question and thought I would share.

I am still trying to determine how twitter fits into my life, but facebook seems like it is a keeper.  Dropped myspace some time ago because it became a little ridiculous.

So what social network fits you best?  Scroll to the top of the blog and cast your vote!