August 7th, 2007
We read an interesting VirtualWorldNews feature last week entitled “Do Avatars Need Virtual Worlds?” that caused us to wonder if our industry needs to develop a new science dedicated to tracking business transactions conducted by avatars inside AND outside virtual worlds. As the report points outs:
“People spend over $1.5 billion every year on virtual goods. That’s not all going into virtual worlds. In fact, the “world” aspect of the virtual platform might be among the least important right now. …
For Sean Ryan, CEO of Meez, that makes perfect sense. “The absolute trend, beyond worlds, is identity. I want something that expresses who I am. It’s no different than a ring tone. If you have a hip hop ring tone, it tells everyone around you that you like hip hop. An avatar does that more than a world.”
There have been an increasing number of tracking & measuring initiatives related to specific in-world economies and transactions, but perhaps we need to expand such research into the broader realm of avatar-related commerce. Could this be the birth of avatarnomics?
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