In the virtual worlds universe we see new planets created all the time, but not so many disappearing. Following this analogy, black holes (closed/closing VW’s) are now shown in the K Zero universe chart.
This week we saw Google Lively planning for closure and going back in time a little, Faketown and Coke Studio are also shown. The permanent home for these charts is here.
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Gaming isn’t really a sector we cover here (although I’m a gamer, well, a COD nut), but every once and while something creative hits the inbox.
Thanks for Frank Dellario from ILL Clan Animation Studios for tossing this one over.
We need more of this a. advertising and b. creativity in the virtual worlds sector.
So, Google Lively is closing down at the end of the year.
Does it matter?
Not really. Although many people spoke about ‘validation’ in the industry by Google entering the VW space, there was no fundamental strategy in place. And validation isn’t really important because it’s the kids using the other popular worlds who are driving adoption today and more importantly taking us to new frontiers in the future.
People spoke about the brandopportunitiesin Lively. These didn’t materialise. After all, it’s a short list of brands that would want their rooms listed next to sex clubs. Plus, branded rooms is a throw-back to the marketing disasters we saw in Second Life in 2007.
They didn’t really understand their target market for Lively either. Who were they targeting? Did they even know?
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The rise and rise of virtual worlds. From virtual cities to virtual conferences and football matches, online worlds are the way of the future. Nov 14, 2008.
Full article here.
Just over a year ago Techdigest did a great job of live-blogging the Virtual Worlds Forum event in London. They also came up with a list of 20 trends defining virtual worlds in 2007. Now then, a year is a long long time in the virtual worlds space so let’s go back and look at these predictions and see what’s happened a year later.
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1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008. KZ: Spot on. See them here. And expect even more in 2009.
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2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge. Well, some of the largest VW’s at present cater to the teen marketplaces like Stardoll, Habbo, IMVU and Gaia, although it’s the tween worlds which show the highest growth signs at the moment.
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3. Brands still get it wrong. They did for sure in 2007. In 2008 we’re seeing better approaches, mainly because brands are starting to realise the range of different worlds available. Agencies are still a little slow getting to grips with virtual worlds though.
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4. There’s a problem with communication. Yes, the industry is still a little insular and the media tends to flirt positively and negatively with virtual worlds. This issue is easing though, mainly through increased penetration of KT&T worlds.
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5. There will be big growth in corporate use of virtual worlds. KZ: The first prediction that has yet to be realised.
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6. Virtual items will be a big moneyspinner. KZ: Definitely, and will I think become the dominant factor for most virtual worlds. Here’s some stats to support this.?
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7. Mobile is a bit of a wildcard. KZ: Not yet. They’re still the red herring.
So, the full Habbo report is here and shown below is comparative data for the UK, Spain and Germany.
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Bear in mind that this is not a 100% snapshot of the member bases but instead analysis derived from 58,500 survey respondents (however I will use the term ‘users’ when detailing the findings).
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First up age. Spanish users appear to be older than the UK and Germany. German users are younger.
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Now gender. Boys are higher represented than girls, particularly in Spain.
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For top interests, listening to music is popular with all three countries, although in Spain playing video and online games is more popular. The Spanish like to party more and the Germans like to date. Us UK folks hold up the thinking that we’re an ignorant bunch when it comes to culture because traveling isn’t popular for us (interests shown without bars didn’t feature in the top 10). Watching TV across all three countries is only half-way down the list (hey, why watch TV when you can party!).
In terms of Internet Usage, instant messaging is most popular for all and the Spanish like email more than the UK and Germany. Only the UK ranks for social networking although the Germans like chat rooms more than the other countries. Those naughty Spaniards put file-sharing in the top 10 (tut tut).
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…and following the UK and Spain, it’s only right to include Germany in this mix.
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Following on from this post showing theGlobal Habbo Youth Survey for UK members, below is Spain. Some interesting nuances are coming out. And on a related note, here’s some insight into Spanish Second Life residents from last year.
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