The American market for virtual goods will grow 31 percent to $2.1 billion in 2011, according to a new report from Inside Network. Virtual goods sold in social games are set to account for 40 percent of the market, or about $840 million in 2011. Read More »
Tech
After finding more than $375 of iTunes transactions on my credit card this weekend, I thought I was hacked. It turns out the “hacker” was my step-daughter who was understandably confused between virtual goods and real currency for in-app purchases inside a free iPhone application. Read More »
Mig33, a mobile social service with 34 million members, in October of 2009 decided to shift its center of gravity to where its customers were: Asia. It also went from selling voice minutes to social games and virtual goods. The moves seem to be paying off. Read More »
Jeremy Liew, a managing director with Lightspeed Venture Partners, is a big believer in virtual goods. Liew recently stopped by GigaOM HQ for a quick chat about the explosive growth of that market and where it’s headed. Read More »
Gamers in North America and Europe are now “largely comfortable” with purchasing digital content such as virtual currency and in-game goods, according to new research. We sat down with the CEO of game aggregator Kongregate to learn how virtual goods are impacting his business. Read More »
According to Zynga, the creator of Farmville and other popular Flash-based interactive games on Facebook, over the past two days alone, players with Farmville accounts have sent close to half a billion virtual Valentine’s Day gifts to each other. Read More »
Roughly 12 percent of Americans, or more than one in 10, have bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 months, according to a new study by analyst firm Frank N. Magid Associates and commissioned by virtual currency provider PlaySpan.… Read More »
When Heyzap, the San Francisco-based startup that offers up casual, Flash-based games for publishers to embed to their sites, launched back in January, revenue was being generated by the short ads shown before its games. But as the economic downturn tightened its grip and… Read More »
