Virtual Goods Ticker

--> The Virtual Goods Ticker now has its own domain.

Daily updated news about

• virtual goods,
• virtual items,
• real money transfer (RMT),
• micro payments, and
• free to play business models.

Live Gamer signs up THQ as big game publishers embrace virtual goods: GamesBeat; 19.07.2010; "just the beginning of a trend that will gain more momentum as the year proceeds"

Free-to-play business model starting to generate a “geiser of money” for iPhone game makers: VentureBeat; 15.07.2010; "Now it’s a geiser of money. You can build companies around this business model.”

Google Secretly Invested $100+ Million In Zynga; TechCrunch; 10.07.2010; "Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games"

Santa Clara Virtual Goods Conference: Virtual Goods News; 09.07.2010; "Virtual goods have gone from an alternative revenue stream to a key monetization solution"

How to Create a Virtual Goods Market: Inc; 29.06.2010; "...will reach $6 billion by 2013 [...] Integrate virtual goods as early as possible"

There’s Real Money in Virtual Goods: TechCrunch; 23.10.2010; "Just five years ago, anyone predicting that we’d be talking about mainstream virtual goods in 2010 would have been dismissed as a dreamer"

Xbox Live Is Making Boatloads Of Money On Virtual Goods: Forbes; 17.06.2010; "virtual goods business has surpassed [subscriptions]"

Free-To-Play Industry To Reach $7 Billion By 2015: WorldsInMotion.biz; 10.06.2010; "free-to-play model is increasing in popularity at an astounding rate"

Virtual Currency Co. BigDoor Gets Real Money: Online Media Daily; 08.06.2010; "the sector has become increasingly attractive to investors"

Virtual Goods Boom in 2010: eMarketer; 07.06.2010; http://j.mp/9Yl06N "substantial increase in the number of consumers buying digital goods"

13% of Online Consumers Buy Virtual Goods: MarketingVOX; 03.06.2010; "average spend increased 14% between 2009 and 2010"

Spending on virtual goods continues upturn: USA Today; 28.05.2010; "We're on the upward curve of a huge growth industry with younger players leading the charge"

Sulake’s Habbo virtual world for kids keeps growing at fast clip: VentureBeat; 20.05.2010; "users can play for free but pay real money to buy virtual goods"

PlaySpan's US ARPPU Is $22.76: Virtual Goods News; 06.05.2010; "After the US, Germany contributes the most to PlaySpan with 23% of the companies revenues"

Digital River buys virtual goods company Fatfoogoo: VentureBeat; 05.05.2010; "Fatfoogoo, based in Vienna, Austria, provides a platform for game developers to implement virtual currency and virtual goods. Virtual goods is expected to become a $1.6 billion market, in 2010"

Susan Wu: Fast Company; 31.04.2010; http://j.mp/dpsiOr "virtual goods .. are a much more efficient monetization engine than advertising"

IMVU’s Virtual Cash Cow: Doubling Revenues, Focused On Gaming: TechCrunch; 30.04.2010; "The company makes the bulk of its profits from users buying credits for IMVU’s virtual catalog, a digital warehouse of some 4 million items including pet dragons, clothes, and new eyebrows"

Virtual worlds recede, but Second Life keeps growing: GamesBeat; 28.04.2010; "Last year, in the midst of the recession, Second Life’s virtual goods economy in user-to-user transactions was $567 million, up 65 percent from the year before."

IMVU Hits $40M Annual Revenue Run Rate: Virtual Worlds News; 26.04.2010; "We're profitable. ... selling virtual goods for inexpensive entertainment made IMVU an appealing place to weather an economic downturn"

Zynga CEO Says No Need to Add Ads Within Games: CNBC; 21.04.2010, "We don’t want to distract our users from the games and we’re profitable just letting them have fun and find the items they want to buy in the games"

Blizzard Sells $2 Million In Virtual Livestock In Four Hours: Techdirt; 21.04.2010, "Blizzard has started to capitalize a bit on this trend, and now sells virtual pets through its online store"

Virtual Goods Market To Hit $100 Billion This Decade: EDGE; 16.04.2010; "the western world’s share of the market should increase massively in the coming years"

Virtual Goods Will Be Worth $100B In This Decade: Virtual Goods News; 16.04.2010; "Western market for virtual goods fully matures in this decade: $60 billion"

Virtual Goods 20% Of US Game Market By 2011: Virtual Goods News; 14.04.2010; "The report expects PC sales to remain relatively flat in future years while expecting 51% growth in the virtual goods market through 2010"

Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew Says Lots of Growth Left in Virtual Goods: GigaOM; 15.04.2010; "Liew, managing director with LVP, is a big believer in virtual goods"

China's Social Gaming Leaders Take Aim at the U.S. Market: 31.03.2010; "The market is growing very quickly, because of the massive shift of user behavior on to the social networks, and the growth of virtual goods-based business models within that."


Virtual Goods Are Coming To iPad: Virtual Goods News; 03.04.2010; "The iPad supports microtransactions through support built in to the modified iPhone OS"

60% Of Gamers Buy Virtual Goods: Virtual Worlds News; 29.03.2010; "freemium MMORPGs alone will manage to grow from an $800 million business in 2009 to over $3 billion in 2014"

Kongregate grows virtual goods revenue 30 percent per month: VentureBeat; 23.03.2010, "virtual goods is rapidly becoming the business model of choice for online games"

Virtual Goods Worth $750M To PayPal In 2010: Virtual Goods News; 20.03.2010; "PayPal processed $500 million in payments for virtual goods in 2009, up from $250 million in 2008"

Money for Nothing, The serious business of pretend products: Newsweek; 19.03.2010; "a lot of these people are spending real money to buy virtual products"

PayPal Rolls Out Cheaper Way To Process Microtransactions: Virtual Goods News; 15.03.2010; "$the 1.6 billion virtual goods market could see a could see considerable lift if PayPal becomes a more attractive payment option"

JVWR issue on virtual economies, goods and service delivery published: Virtual Worlds Research Network; 12.03.2010; "Habbo coins are now so mainstream that they are available at retail outlets such as 7Eleven and Target"

Aria Systems Announces Aria Virtual Inventory Engine: Earth Times; 11.03.2010; "With the rise of virtual goods and currencies, gaming companies have one of the most interesting and complex monetization opportunities of any industry"

With Sales Of Virtual Goods, The Reality Is Serious Revenue; Luxury Weblog; 06.03.2010; "In the virtual world as in the real world, people want to accumulate things"

Facebook could earn more cash from virtual currency, exec says: silicon repoblic; 06.03.2010; "Virtual currency on Facebook has the potential to be a bigger revenue maker than the ads business"

Content-Sharing, Virtual Goods Helped Slide Double its User Base in February: Inside Social Games; 01.03.2010; "letting users create their own virtual goods, sell them and make money ... In January, Rabois says that users made $160,000 on their creations"

Virtual goods meet physical environments: lostremote; 03.03.2010; "The virtual goods economy is here to stay"

Social games driving virtual goods market: BizReport; 22.02.2010; "The virtual goods market is set to soar ..."

Facebook Links with PayPal for Virtual Goods Boom: BloggingStocks; 19.02.2010; "it allows users to easily buy and sell virtual goods ... This market is expected to explode in the coming years"

Facebook’s Decision To Print Money Out Of Thin Air: All Facebook; 18.02.2010; "The best way for Facebook to expand revenue ... is to ... let users make virtual goods purchases through Facebook. Facebook has a great potential to at least double their current Credits business"

Valentine’s Day: Virtual gifts are catching up: Entertainment & Showbiz; 14.02.2010; "is making thousand dollars a day just by selling virtual gifts"

Zynga Acquires Serious Business: Virtual Worlds News; 11.02.2010; "The company generates roughly 90% of its revenue through direct sale of virtual goods"

Facebook Credits Boosting Virtual Goods Sales By 25%: Virtual Goods News; 10.02.2010; "CEO of one of the largest social game developers on Facebook has stated that implementing Facebook Credits increased sales of virtual goods by 20 to 25%, according to TBI Research"

Zeus Research and STi let you use phone cards to buy virtual goods: GamesBeat; 09.02.2010; "Virtual goods are turning into a big business"

75% Of 2009 Slide Revenue Came From Virtual Goods: Virtual Goods News; 03.02.2010; "company's goal for 2010 is to generate 90% of its revenue through sales of virtual goods"

White Knight Chronicles To Feature Virtual Goods DLC: Virtual Goods News; 03.02.2010; "generate extra revenue through sale of virtual goods"

Star Trek Online Launches With Virtual Goods: Virtual Goods News; 03.02.2010; "Cryptic has supported microtransactions and virtual goods aggressively in its last few games"

Focus on Virtual Goods Instead of Ads: techstartups.com; 02.02.2010; "But it looks like we’ve only gotten a taste of social gaming in 2009. Experts think the exchange of virtual goods will hit main street this year"

Scrapblog Adds Real-World Brands To Virtual Goods Marketplace: Virtual Goods News; 27.01.2010; "Scrapblog will share revenue generated by sales of the branded scrapbooking tools with its partners"

U.S. virtual goods revenue expected to hit $1.6B this year: VentureBeat; 26.01.2010; "The revenue numbers are growing fast..."

Report released: The Future of Social Gaming 2010: Inside Virtual Goods; 27.01.2010; "It's become clear that there are substantial opportunities for social game developers with virtual goods revenue models, but the market is still evolving rapidly."

Virtual goods continue to make (real) serious money: cnet News; 26.01.2010; "I remain very bullish on virtual goods as nice additions to games if not an actual industry unto itself"

Cash for Virtual Goods Company Rixty Raises $1.24 Million: Inside Social Games; 22.01.2010; "Javelin Venture Partners, Accelerator Ventures, First Round Capital, Freestyle Capital, Nueva Ventures, SoftTechVC"

$1.38B Invested In Online Game, Virtual Goods Firms In 2009: Virtual Goods News; 20.01.2010; "three times the amount of money invested in the virtual goods space in 2008"

'Microtransactions' add up for free online games: USA Today; 20.01.2010; "Virtual goods are spreading across online games [...] The appeal of microtransactions is that [they] allows anyone to play, so there is an inclusive mentality. Once a player is vested in a game, there is an opportunity for the developer to build on that relationship."

Brits spending 500m pounds a year on virtual goods: sify news; 18.01.2010; "People are happy to buy virtual gifts as they don't see them as being virtual anymore"

Venture capitalists are bullish on the future of game funding: VentureBeat; 15.01.2010; "virtual goods will have hockey stick growth in 2010 in the West"

Online games vendors rake in really big bucks from virtual goods: itbusiness.ca; 12.01.2010; "Virtual goods seller made a killing despite recession"

Virtual goods market heating up: Wired PR News; 11.01.2010; "The market for virtual goods is seeing significant growth"

Money for nothing? Virtual goods market takes off: Computerworld; 09.01.2010; "The concept of virtual goods is exploding beyond virtual worlds"

Five markets to watch in 2010: Econsultancy; 06.01.2010; "Virtual goods are already a billion-dollar a year business and despite the controversy over some parts of the market, make no doubt about it: this is one train that shows no signs of slowing down"

Virtual Currency Gets a Video Boost for Gamers: Kristen Nicole/EverythingPR; 06.01.2006; "As virtual goods are expected to take off in 2010, there will be a lot of attention focused on companies such as gWallet to establish standards around the monetization of social, casual gaming."

EA’s Chip Lange on the future of gaming’s hottest sector: casual and social games: VentureBeat; 01.01.2010; "We saw the validation of virtual goods in social games this year"

Analyst: U.S. Virtual Goods Market Could Double In 2010: Worlds in Motion; 31.12.2009; "Atul Bagga/ThinkEquity, believes the U.S.'s virtual goods market could double in 2010"

Virtual Economy in U.S. is Booming: DailyTech; 31.12.2009; "This [virtual goods] is just an exploding part of the gaming business right now. It is the most exciting area in gaming."

5 Most Interesting VC Predictions for 2010: VatorNews; 31.12.2009; "In 2009, pundits shoveled dirt on ad-based business models and virtual goods became the new monetization panacea"

Virtual goods give Web firms new revenue in ad slump: Reuters; 29.12.2009; http://j.mp/7AWcKL "The bigger companies are putting their weight behind this model | For many Web entrepreneurs, virtual goods are a better fit than advertising"

Venture Capital 2010: Hot (and cold) sectors to watch: VentureBeat; 28.12.2009; "The freemium model is also worth watching"

FactCheck: Social Games Maker Playdom: Virtual Worlds News; 18.12.2009; "revenues: 75% virtual goods - 10% ads"

Live Gamer Launches Free Realms Marketplace: Virtual Goods News; 18.12.2009; "Free Realms is the first successful, large-scale MMO in the US to support a freemium model, and Live Gamer is delighted to complete their virtual economy with a sanctioned secondary market for virtual goods"

People Buy Crap for Their Avatars? Even Sony Can’t Believe It: GamerCrave; 16.12.2009; "the revenue that comes from that is significant"

PlaySpan Issues Complete VGMarket Digital Goods Study: Virtual Goods News; 10.12.2009; "Two-thirds of buyers purchase virtual goods about once per month, with one-quarter purchasing as often as once per week"

Free-to-play, virtual goods business models gain steam in games: VentureBeat; 10.12.2009; "More money is spent on digital goods in free-to-play games than in any other genre. Over the past year, the median expenditure for virtual goods was $75 a person in a free-to-play game"

Zynga’s tips for social gaming success: VentureBeat; 08.12.2009; "virtual goods make up more than 90 percent of revenue, dwarfing other sources like advertising"

Maximizing Virtual Goods Through Dynamic Pricing: Virtual Goods Insider; 3.12.2009; "It’s no secret that the virtual goods industry has exploded in the past two years"

Virtual Goods: Good For Business?: KZERO; 27.11.2009; "2009 has to be called the year of the virtual good. ... the virtual goods sector is one of the fastest growing areas of the Internet"

Facebook Talking to Developers About New Plans for Its Virtual Currency: Inside Facebook; 25.11.2009; "Hundreds of millions of dollars are being made on Facebook’s platform through third-party virtual goods"

I want that cow — the rise and rise of virtual gaming: London Evening Standard; 24.11.09; "[virtual goods ] is such an attractive market that companies around the world are rushing to enter it"

Q3 Tencent Revenues Approach $500M: Virtual Goods News; 12.11.2009; "virtual goods and microtransactions was $384 mio."

Success Stories for the Micro-transaction Business Model: Live Gamer/Ivan Walsh; 12.11.2009; "are testament to the strength the microtransaction model"

Dedicated Virtual Goods Track Added To Engage! Expo 2010 Conference: Virtual Goods News; 11.11.2009; "will give you the inside scoop on the "real", the "hype" and how you can capitalize on virtual goods, virtual items and microtransactions"

Electronic Arts Buys Playfish, a Social Games Start-Up: NY Times; 09.11.2009; "Games are becoming more lucrative as people get accustomed to buying things as they play"

The Hot New Business Of Virtual Goods: The Business Insider; 07.11.2009; "It’s a fantastic business: Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners"

Virtual Goods Start Bringing Real Paydays: NY Times; 06.11.2009; http://j.mp/2MOX6G "it is quickly becoming commonplace for people to spend a few dollars on them to get ahead in an online game or to give a friend a gift on a social network"

CHART OF THE DAY: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode: The Business Insider; 05.11.2009; "The virtual goods market in the U.S. is ready to take off"

Blizzard Adds Virtual Goods to World of Warcraft: Inside Social Games; 05.11.2009; "World of Warcraft, this big fish is hardly unaware of the booming virtual goods market"

IMVU.com proves fiscal stability while creating a gold standard with virtual worlds; examiner.com; 30.10.2009; "they doubled their revenue in one year and hit the $25 million benchmark."

Zynga Acquires GoPets; Virtual Goods News; 31.10.2009; The big new buys one of the big old virtual goods based social games.

More gamers are selling virtual goods: VentureBeat; 28.10.2009; "virtual currency is gaining momentum"

Virtual-goods resellers on the rise: CNET News; 28.10.2009; "the secondary market increases primary market"

Explains why virtual goods are so hot: GamesBeat/Chang/Norwest; 26.10.2009; "the hottest business model for game startups in 2009 is virtual goods"

Virtual consumption: PhD thesis by Lehdonvirta; 26.10.2009; "the present economic downturn may turn out to be a boost to virtual consumption"

The U.S. Virtual Goods Market Is FINALLY Catching Up: The Business Insider; 25.10.2009; "...the market for virtual goods will expand vastly"

Ning Users Set Up Shop: MediaPost; 21.10.2009; "to drive new revenue opportunities for our network creators"

Virtual Good Sales Could Grow 100% To 150% This Year In The US And Western Europe: The Business Insider; 20.10.2009; "We believe there will be increased M&A/investment activity in the casual gaming space the next year"

Apple Extends In-App Purchasing To Free Apps: EDGE; 19.10.2009; "...purchase of virtual goods .. dramatically expands the market opportunity for social game companies"

Sometrics Nets $4.4M Funding Round: Virtual Goods News; 16.10.2009; "The surge in virtual goods spending..."

Trading in online virtual goods set to top $1bn: Financial Times; 13.10.2009; "expected to double again next year"

AdNectar Launches Branded Virtual Goods on Twitter and LiveJournal: Ad Ops Online; 12.10.2009; "Sending virtual goods is now mainstream..."

Gartner has advised businesses to take more care with staff avatars: ITPRO; 07.10.2009; "users have a "personal affinity" with avatars, take pride in personalising"

Announcing Inside Virtual Goods: Tracking the US Virtual Goods Market, 2009 – 2010: Inside Social Games; 06.10.2009; "2009 will be remembered as the year virtual goods-based businesses began to scale ... Virtual goods may be bringing the largest disruption entertainment, communication, and e-commerce infrastructure companies have seen for a long time."

PopCap games raises $22.5 million: vatornews; 06.10.2009; "So, why take an investment now? PopCap is looking to step into this rising trend of social media gaming and virtual goods economy."

DUST 514 To Bring Microtransactions To Consoles: Virtual Goods News; 05.10.2009; "follows .. trends regarding microtransactions.."

IMVU, the 3-D avatar chat room company, hits $25M in revenue: VentureBeat; 02.10.2009; "grew revenue primarily by ... virtual goods"

Playdom: “Upwards of $50 Million” in Annual Revenue, and Growing: Inside Social Games; 01.10.2009; "How? Through virtual goods"

Micro-Transactions Proving to Be Game-Changer for Mochi Media: EarthTimes; 29.09.2009; "and we are only at the beginning."

Guess Which Economy Doubled in Size Last Year: BNET Intercom; 23.09.2009; "Users spent more than a billion dollars on virtual goods the last year"

80% of online gamers now buy virtual goods: The Virtual Currency Report; 19.09.2009; "Free to Play gamers most active buyers"

EA, Turbine Report Monetization Success: Virtual Goods News; 17.09.2009; "EA reports boost packs rapidly became most popular items"

How exactly is Facebook making money?: Guardian Technology; 17.09.2009; "virtual property .. can prove a highly profitable business"

Is the virtual boom our industrial revolution?: Brisbane Times; 15.09.2009; "virtual items: this surging new market is a seismic economic change"

Over Half Of Gamers Purchasing In Freemium Games: Virtual Goods News; 14.09.2009; "58% of players spent money in free-to-play games"

Billions spent on virtual goods every year: Fierce CIO Tech Watch; 11.09.2009; "money virtual, but profits are real"

The most popular digital goods are virtual money, weapons and gifts: VentureBeat; 11.09.2009; "paying real money for digital goods"

The massive money of microtransactions: Massively: Redefining MMOs; 11.09.2009; "items that actually affect your game."

Virtual goods pour millions into coffers of networking sites: Emirates Business; 10.09.2009; "people were happy to pay for content related to emotion, status and entertainment"

Riot Games scores $8 million: Vator News; 09.09.2009; "Investors betting on online virtual goods"

Why do People Buy Virtual Goods?: Wall Street Journal; 09.09.2009; "do more, build relationships, establish identity"

Latest Star Wars MMO May Use Microtransactions: Virtual Goods News; 08.09.2009; "Hybridizing the traditional subscription payment method of MMORPGs with optional microtransactions seems to be gaining traction as publishers look for more ways to make games profitable"

The future of virtual goods: Hypergrid Business; 07.09.2009; "up 134 percent from 2008’s $265 million. And this total will rise to nearly $2.5 billion by 2013"

Ogame on its way for Virtual Goods?: OgameBlog; 07.09.2009; "For publishers it works as a tool to raise revenues"

Champions Online Launches With Item Shop: Virtual Goods News; 03.09.2009; "monetizes through subscription fees, but adds item shop"

TxtNation bets on micro-payments: mobile88; 03.09.2009; "..is clearly driving the growth .. Role-playing games see additional revenue from microbilling"

FarmVille Sends Zynga Over 100M Milestone: Virtual Goods News; 02.09.2009; "100 mio virtual goods users in the biggest game on facebook"

More pressure to limit behavioral targeting threatens startup media companies: Lightspeed Venture Partners/NY Times; 01.09.2009; "Possible regulation of behavioral targeting a blow to ad revenues"

Do Microtransactions Have Staying Power In Flash Games?: Virtual Goods News; 01.09.2009; "MT are tremendously more profitable than advertising"

RuneScape Has 105 Million User Accounts: The Escapist; 01.09.2009; "10 Mio. active players. It's free-to-play = Virtual Goods based"

Big Fish Reels In Virtual Goods With Faunasphere: Virtual Goods News; 31.08.2009; "Big Fish Games turns from subscription to microtransactions"

Das ganze Web ist ein Spiel: Deutsche Startups; 31.08.2009; "Refinanzierungsmodell .. über virtuelle Gegenstände .. ist .. fast eine sichere Bank"

T-Pain Comes To Outspark's Fiesta: Virtual Goods News; 26.08.2009; "Celebrity branded virtual goods on the are rise"

Microtransaction Profits Soar For Korea's Gamevil: Virtual Goods News; 20.08.2009; "Growth is driven by microtransaction purchases of virtual items"

GDC Europe: Gameforge - Free-To-Play 'Will Dominate Soon': Gamasutra; 19.08.2009; "Virtual goods is like buying music online, they really do pay"

MyYearbook Profitable Thanks To Virtual Goods: Virtual Goods News; 18.08.2009; "profitable thanks in large part to virtual currency and virtual goods"

Jambool raises $5M for virtual goods platform: Venturebeat; 18.08.2009; "Virtual goods is one of the hottest parts of games and social networks"

Virtual Goods Now Funding Most Development on the Facebook Platform: Inside Facebook; 17.08.2009; "2009 will be remembered as the year virtual goods-based businesses exploded"

EA: The Future Is Free-To-Play: Virtual Goods News; 14.08.2009; "for a very, very long time, free-to-play is absolutely the future of where our key franchises are going"

Virtual Goods Marketplace Shifting from Virtual Worlds: Piper Jaffra/Virtual Goods News; 14.08.2009; "134 percent increase over 2008. Then growth will cool to double digit growth through 2013"

Inside Tencent Report 2009 | US$1 billion can’t be wrong!: Plus Eight Star; 13.08.2009; "Virtual goods is the name of the game (and 90% of Tencent’s revenue of US$1 billion)"

Business in a virtual world brings $billions with social networks in the lead: Ecommerce Journal; 13.08.2009; "Nothing says engagement like a flock of avatars crowding a virtual store and showing off in their virtual home"

Revenues Up For Tencent, Perfect World: Redline/Virtual Goods News; 12.08.2009; "Tencent is probably the single biggest virtual goods business in the world, generating over $1 billion last year through sales of virtual goods and virtual items. "

Americans Will Spend Over $400M On Virtual Goods In 2009: San Francisco Business Times/Virtual Goods News; 12.08.2009; "Mochi Media co-founder Jameson Hsu reports that the company's new virtual goods are earning at 10 to 20 times the rate of advertising"

HollywoodPlayer and Virtual Goods: It's Going to Be Huge: Virtual Goods News; 07.08.2009; "HollywoodPlayer will monetize through sales of virtual goods"

Oberon Media dives into virtual goods market with new casual game: Venturebeat; 06.08.2009; "The company focuses on more traditional business models. Now micro-transactions will be a big part of the push going forward."

1 In 10 Internet Users Buys Virtual Goods: Information Week; 31.07.2009; "12 percent of Americans saying they spent real money on these items in the last year"

EGO City Claims Big Gains In Virtual Goods Revenue: Virtual Goods News; 31.07.2009; "We have seen tremendous growth in our digital goods revenue"

Virtuelle Welten boomen im Verborgenen: Pressetext Austria; 31.07.2009; "Im Gegensatz zur Meinung vieler Kritiker boomen die virtuellen Welten geradezu. "

12% of Americans Bought Virtual Goods in Past 12 Months: Survey: Frank N. Magid Associates/GigaOM; 30.07.2009; "Half of the respondents who report being active MMO participants are also virtual item consumers"

Ernstzunehmender Wirtschaftsfaktor mit Potenzial (Seite 10): DBResearch; 16.06.2009; "Verbraucher, die ihren Konsum einschränken, auf kostspielige Aktionen verzichten, stattdessen mehr Zeit zu Hause verbringen. Ein Teil des eingesparten Budgets dürfte dann in das heimische Unterhaltungsangebot und damit auch in die Games-Branche fließen."

Market research firm predicts population explosion for virtual worlds: Strategy Analytics/Virtual Worlds News/Massively; 15.06.2009; "by 2015, the population of virtual worlds will go from 186 mio to 640 mio"

What Are The Rewards Of 'Free-To-Play' MMOs?: Gamasutra; 09.06.2009; "[ARPU] $3 then you have a good business"

Tencent’s virtual goods revenues keep growing during recession: VentureBeat; 14.04.2009; "virtual goods saw a quarter-over-quarter increase of nearly 20 percent and a year-over-year increase of 75 percent"

IMVU Making At Least $1.7M Montly With User-Made Virtual Goods: Virtual Goods News; 13.04.2009; "70% growth in monthly revenue since the official beginning of the economic downturn"

Branded Virtual Goods Boost Purchase Intent By 20% Or More On Social Networks: Virtual Goods News; 09.03.2009; "Virtual items have become mainstream and ..."

Avatare sind die Zukunft des Online-Verkaufs: Pressetext Austria; 20.02.2009; "Der Käufer der Zukunft wird seinen Avatar in ein virtuelles Geschäft schicken"

Weblin Launching Virtual Goods and Layered Banners in February: Virtual Goods News; 23.01.2009; "as soon as a bunch of digital goods are available, they will overtake ads"