Comments on: 12% of Americans Bought Virtual Goods in Past 12 Months: Survey

By: Virtual Nonsense All the Way Down the Drain. A Twisted (?) View of US vs China | Zoli's Blog

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:20:50 +0000

[...] good chunk of these virtual worlds is owning virtual goods, that cost no-virtual, but real money: GigaOM reports that the virtual goods market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this [...]

By: Virtual Nonsense All the Way Down the Drain. A Twisted (?) View of US vs China

Virtual Nonsense All the Way Down the Drain. A Twisted (?) View of US vs China — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:52:14 +0000

[...] good chunk of these virtual worlds is owning virtual goods, that cost no-virtual, but real money: GigaOM reports that the virtual goods market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this [...]

By: Video: Kongregate CEO on the Growth of Virtual Goods

Video: Kongregate CEO on the Growth of Virtual Goods — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:51:19 +0000

[...] the overall assessment of the data.) Last July, a Magid study commissioned by PlaySpan found that roughly 12 percent of Americans had purchased a virtual [...]

By: Virtual Economy and Social Networking Currencies Bring In Real Cash « What's New | Updata Advisor's

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:18:42 +0000

[...] on selling to Facebook members. A recent study estimated that the virtual goods and currency market will reach $1.8 billion this year, with a startling 12% of Americans having bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 [...]

By: Monde Virtuel VS Réseau Sociaux

Monde Virtuel VS Réseau Sociaux — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:43:32 +0000

[...] dépensés microtransactions en Dans les univers virtuels en 2009, dont plus de 200 millions aux Etats-Unis. Une étude Prévoit même Une croissance vertigineuse (crédible?) à 17, 3 milliards de dollars [...]

By: Покупкой виртуальных товаров занимается 12% американских игроков « Igri-Info.Ru

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:01:32 +0000

[...] Игровой мир, Интересности, MMO trackback Сайт GigaOM сообщил об исследовании готовности американских [...]

By: One in 10 Americans Buy Virtual Goods | Kikabink News - Internet Marketing News

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:01:31 +0000

[...] Wagner James Au, “12 Percent of Americans Bought Virtual Goods In Past 12 Months: Survey,̶… Share and [...]

By: Dale Fox

Dale Fox — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:06:13 +0000

As much as I would love to believe this, it doesn’t add up from any angle. For example, the study indicates that revenue from virtual goods stands at $200-$250MM in the US alone. Given their estimate of $30 per person in virtual goods sales, that would be roughly 8 million virtual goods customers. Given the US population of roughly 300MM individuals, that would correlate to just under 3% of the population, not 12%. A much more believable figure.

My suspicion is that the confusion resides in the description of “Virtual Goods” and people’s understanding of that. It may be that the handful of free tokens I get (and spend) when I join a game are being counted as a “yes” for study purposes, even though they don’t result in any revenue for the company or the marketplace in general.

By: Hollywood Player Converts Movie Clips Into Casual Games

Hollywood Player Converts Movie Clips Into Casual Games — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:02:00 +0000

[...] be announced soon, Long and Kuper tell me, including partnerships with several Hollywood studios. As with so many social games nowadays, digital goods will also be a future revenue source. Right now, you can use the Hollywood Credits [...]

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:42:43 +0000

Actually, the sample size was nearly 2000 Americans between 12-64, selected to conform to US census data by age, race, gender.

By: SAMPLESIZEMATTERS

SAMPLESIZEMATTERS — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:30:41 +0000

this “research” is hilarious. the sample size is probably from the 10 people that completed the survey. PLZ have consideration for statistical relevancy before posting this garbage.

By: Reading blogs #17 : ::: Think Macro :::

Reading blogs #17 : ::: Think Macro ::: — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:16:44 +0000

[...] “12% of Americans Bought Virtual Goods in Past 12 Months: Survey” – I was always curious who buys those virtual gifts on Facebook, apparently quite a lot of people. [...]

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:34:30 +0000

Sean, the survey I cite in the article doesn’t say half the users of virtual worlds buy virtual goods, it says half the 12% US consumers who buy virtual goods are also regular virtual worlds user. My intent in the comment above was to suggest how that 12% figure is plausible, partly based on how large the user bases of the biggest MMOs are. However, I didn’t express that very clearly, because you’re right that the monetization rates of Habbo etc. aren’t 46% — sorry for the confusion. In any case, my GigaOM Pro analysis doesn’t discuss monetization rates, but active user numbers in virtual worlds, and trends around them.

By: Sean Ryan

Sean Ryan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:35:24 +0000

I haven’t seen the analysis for GigaOm Pro since it’s behind a wall, but the idea that 1 in 2 virtual world have bought virtual goods (meaning spend actual cash, not just acquired currency) in the last 12 months doesn’t mesh with literally any virtual world you mention, based on my conversations with each of their teams.

Even if you eliminated all of the users who come to the site only once (generally the bulk of uniques each month) from the analysis to focus solely on active users, the ratio of active payers is below 25% at every site mentioned, which means that this entire study about virtual goods purchases is just insanely overstated.

The VGood business in the US is a robust, fast growing sector, which may hit as high as $1B this year, but the bulk of the purchases are still coming from a small percentage of users.

Sean Ryan
Loki Partners
Monetizing Digital and Social Media

By: Virtual goods purchased by 12% of Americans : Kzero

Virtual goods purchased by 12% of Americans : Kzero — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:40:43 +0000

[...] A new study released yesterday by Frank N. Magid Associates and PlaySpan shows that more than one in 10 Americans or roughly 12 percent have bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 months. The virtual goods and currency market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year and demographic research offers insights into who is buying what and where. Virtual world usage is significant as nearly half of the respondents who report being active MMO participants are also virtual item consumers. More info can be found in the article by Wagner James Au here. [...]

By: ttunguz

ttunguz — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:26:20 +0000

It’s clear this wave is just getting started. With the market growing at a 35% CAGR on a TAM of 3.6B, and one of the primary markets for these goods being teenagers, this wave will only continue to fuel mobile banking. Teenagers will need accounts to transact and associating a prepaid gaming card with a mobile phone, there’s potential for massive disruption in the banking industry – to serve consumers at a fraction of the cost of today banks: no ATMs, no branches, just prepaid cards and virtual currency.

See more at: http://expostfacto.tumblr.com/post/152710336/virtual-goods-are-driving-a-revolution-in-banking