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Virtual goods market to grow by 40 percent in 2011
By Johan Keyter 29 September 2010 | Categories: news
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The anatomy of a winning customer experience strat...As reported by Venture Beat, the latest research from Inside Virtual Goods indicates that the US market for virtual goods will grow by an astonishing 40% in 2011.
Virtual goods are, as the name implies, virtual objects that people buy with real-world cash. This can include any kind of in-game items, weapons or decorations, which some people have been known to spend quite some money on.
The virtual goods market is driven by thousands of in-game micro-transactions, popular mainly in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and in Asian markets.
Western markets have been gaining steam over the past couple of years though, mainly thanks to popular Facebook games such as Zynga's Farmville. Here users can spend real-world money to buy virtual 'Farm Cash' which they can then use to purchase special items in the game.
Major companies have also jumped on the virtual goods bandwagon recently, with EA and Disney recently acquiring Playfish and Playdom, developers of games for social networking sites.
Popular Western MMO's such as Lord of the Rings Online and Everquest II are also helping to boost revenue, while Xbox Live and PlayStation Network purchases are on the rise.
What do you think about virtual transactions? Feel free to share your opinion in the comment box below.
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