Virtual goods..now I'm a believer!
Virtual gifts , and virtual goods in general , have been hot...for a while. The case of gold farmers was the first time I recognized the "real" value of virtual goods, and of course more than an year ago there was the case of the first Second-Life millionaire , (and the infamous press conference that followed.) But anyway, this incredibly thoughtful and thorough pos t from Jeremy Liew covers the different use-cases for virtual goods. Why do I suddenly believe though the data to confirm this has been around for a while? Cos I was finally tempted to buy one on Facebook the other day. :) As far as monetizing virtual gifts (as opposed to virtual goods in general) , Facebook is the most successful that I've heard of (to the tune of $15m according to Liew's analysis .) What's even more impressive? Despite the existence of numerous completely free gift applications , which Facebook doesn't seem to be making explicit efforts to inhibit, their own paid gift app (wh...