Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Quepasa Signs Global Publishing Agreement with Viximo

MARKETWIRE - Oct 5 - Quepasa has signed a global publishing agreement with Viximo to publish Wonderful City – Rio to alternative social networking platforms that collectively drive 150 million monthly unique visitors. The game had over 4.4 million installs across Quepasa.com, Facebook and Orkut with 850,000 daily active users as of August 31st.

See full article at Market Watch

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SponsorPay Partners With Gamania, Mail.Ru And Viximo

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 8 - SponsorPay, European virtual currency monetization platform, parters with global online games publishers Gamania and Mail.Ru as well as social games distribution company Viximo. SponsorPay's solution gives online users access to virtual currency or premium features through participation in targeted ad offers.

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IMVU Partners With Viximo, Heyzap And OMGPOP

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 21 - IMVU, an online community where members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create and play games with their friends, is expanding into social entertainment by offering casual and social games by partnering with leading games developers Viximo, Heyzap and OMGPOP. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETWIRE

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Why Games Are The Killer App For Social Networks [And iDating?]

SNW - Aug 19 - In 2009, $2.2 billion in virtual goods were sold to consumers globally, and that number is expected to rocket to $6 billion by 2013. Although virtual worlds and MMOs have historically driven the growth in virtual goods, today the fastest growing segment is social games. Social gaming got its start in mid-2007 with the launch of the Facebook Platform. In 2009, social games generated $500 million revenue, primarily from social games on Facebook. There are nearly 150 social networks with over 1 million monthly uniques. When it comes to social games, smaller social networks, paradoxically, often have the benefit of size. Users of multiple social networks tend to split their time between Facebook and another social network. To these users, Facebook is an indispensable communication tool, but the other social network is essentially the local pub: A close knit community woven around shared affinities and experiences. Unlike advertising, which detracts from the social experience of a site, a successful social games strategy will simultaneously increase a site’s stickiness and significantly increase revenue.

Mark Brooks: Full disclosure. This article was written by Ravi Mehta, VP Product for Viximo, who are a former client of Courtland Brooks.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Viximo And Virtual Greats Issue First Industry Report On Branded Virtual Goods

VIXIMO BLOG - Aug 5 - Two leaders in the virtual goods industry, Viximo and Virtual Greats, published the industry’s first comprehensive Branded Virtual Goods (BVG) Market Report. The report identifies key trends that will play a major role in the explosive growth of Branded Virtual Goods, which is projected to see a compound annual growth rate of 113% over the next three years.  The new report also provides insight into strategic business opportunities for brands, game developers, virtual worlds and social networks. FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO BLOG

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Why A Virtual Goods Strategy On Valentine’s Day Will Boost Your Revenue

VIXIMO - Feb 23 - Valentine’s Day is the second biggest shopping holiday of the year, coming in second only to Christmas. The National Retail Federation estimated that, despite the recession, $14 billion would be spent on Valentine’s Day gifts in 2010.

Viximo, a virtual gift platform provider, surveyed 1,000 social networking and online dating users about their intent to purchase virtual gifts on February 14. 72% of respondents planned to send virtual goods as a gift on Valentine’s Day. 31% of people who planned to send a virtual gift on Valentine’s Day would be purchasing their first virtual good. Other findings were: Single people will send more virtual gifts than people in a relationship or marriage, and single men are likely to send 4% more virtual valentines than single women. 40% of respondents want to receive Kisses/Smiles on Valentine’s Day.

- Guest post by Brian Balfour, Founder & VP Product Marketing at Viximo

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Viximo Network Reaches 60 Million Users

PRESS RELEASE - Jan 6 - Viximo, the provider offering a complete virtual goods solution, partners with social networks BlackPlanet.com, SmartDate.com and FanIQ.com, expanding Viximo’s network to ~60M monthly users. According to a report by market researcher Inside Network, the virtual goods market reached $1 billion in 2009 and could grow to $1.6 billion in 20101. Viximo currently serves more than 40 brands and two dozen web publishers. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTH TIMES

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Viximo Powers Virtual Goods For Lady Gaga

PRWEB - Nov 17 - Viximo, the provider of virtual goods solutions, will be powering virtual goods for Lady Gaga and other Interscope artists. Virtual goods based on Lady Gaga, like her disco stick and bubble dress, will be made available to Viximo’s network of social networking, online dating, and casual gaming publishers that use Viximo’s Virtual Economy Solution. In addition to Lady Gaga, Viximo will also be powering virtual goods for other Interscope artists, such as The Pussycat Dolls. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTH TIMES

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Real Business: Selling Virtual Goods

BOSTON GLOBE - Nov 8 - Virtual worlds have been generating lots of buzz since Second Life launched in 2003 and is expected to hit $1 billion in the US. Pano Anthos flew out to San Francisco to unveil his new start-up, Hangout Industries, at TechCrunch50. Hangout intended to attract young Internet users and allow them to deck out online rooms with all sorts of branded merchandise. This week, Hangout will be beginning a limited beta test of a new version of its product, and Viximo, a Cambridge start-up, says it’s on the verge of disclosing several big partnerships. Viximo helps website operators add virtual goods to their sites. On a dating site one single might pay $6 or $12 to send another an animation of “two peas in a pod dancing around with music,’’ CEO Dayna Grayson explains. Viximo has established a network of artists who constantly create new virtual goods, and then distributes them to sites like BlackSingles.com and Zorpia, a social network based in Australia. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON GLOBE

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Social Network Zorpia To Provide Virtual Goods Via Viximo

PR WEB - Oct 29 - Viximo, the provider of a virtual goods solution designed for social networks,  online dating, and casual gaming, announced the next version of its virtual goods solutions and Zorpia.com as a new partner. The additions to Viximo’s economy tools provide a deeper set of analytics, currency management and aggregated payment providers. Viximo’s solution will provide Zorpia, one of the largest international social networks with ~16M members, the tools to quickly enable, manage, and optimize their virtual goods business. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Fotolog Partners With Viximo

VIXIMO - Sep 23 - Viximo, the provider of virtual goods solutions for social networking, dating, and casual gaming sites, partners with Fotolog, the photo-blogging site. Combined with Viximo’s Content Marketplace, Fotolog’s storefront will have a robust, fresh inventory of premium content including licensed content from brands, celebrities, and musicians. FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO BLOG

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Model For Product Placement

BOSTON HERALD -- Sep 9 -- Jason Sadler is selling the advertising space on his chest for a full year, offering to wear any company’s T-shirt for a daily fee increasing from $1 to $365. His modeling contract comes with the promise to blog, Twitter and YouTube the heck out of the product at his IWearYourShirt.com site. Sadler just pulled in a $66,795 salary for 2009 and $18,000 in bonus sponsorships. He’s also added a full-time T-shirt-wearing employee. Sadler boasts 17,000 followers on Twitter and 500,000 hits on his Web site. IWearYourShirt.com has a handful of Massachusetts clients. Brian Balfour, founder of Viximo, a developer of “virtual goods” for Facebook and other social media sites, is one of them.  “For most, it’s only a couple hundred bucks - which is practically nothing - so if it gets you even a few new customers and your name attached to something unique, then it’s worth it," said Balfour. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON HERALD

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Digital Toys And Tools Generating Real Bucks

BUSINESS TIMES -- Aug 10 -- Virtual goods are fast becoming big business for real. Zynga, the online social gaming company founded in 2007, gets two-thirds of its projected $100M annual revenue selling virtual goods ranging from digital farm buildings to poker chips. In 2009, an estimated $400M to $600M will be spent on virtual goods in the U.S., and $5.5 billion globally, according to Brian Balfour, founder of Viximo. His firm provides virtual goods services to social networking, online dating and casual gaming sites. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus believes North American virtual goods activity could exceed $15 billion by 2014. FULL ARTICLE @ SF BUSINESS JOURNAL

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Viximo Seeks To Turn Virtual Goods Into Real Profit

MHT -- Aug 7 -- It’s hard enough for online retailers to get consumers to spend money on real goods and services but Viximo is betting that sites will want to get into the business of selling virtual goods. Viximo provides a white-label virtual goods store with gifts and personal accessories designed to complement online identities and messages. The company is getting traction in places such as dating sites, casual games and social networks, where virtual goods are used as gifts, incentives and add-ons to user profiles. In April, Viximo announced a $5M funding from Waltham-based North Bridge and Boston-based Sigma Partners. FULL ARTICLE @ MHT

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This post also appears on Online Personals Watch.

Virtual Goods Primer

VIXIMO -- Aug 5 -- Viximo is hosting a webinar titled, Virtual Goods Primer, which will be an overview for anyone interested in implementing a virtual goods model for their product and will cover:
-  Where and why virtual goods emerged
-  Advantages of a virtual goods business model
-  Why users buy virtual goods
-  Core things you need to implement virtual goods.

When: Wed, August 12th 2pm EST, 11am PST
Sign Up Here -  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/769184475
FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO BLOG

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Viximo Finds Content Is King For Virtual Goods

PR WEB -- July 29 --  Viximo, has released data from a study, exemplifying the effects content has on virtual goods revenue.  Virtual gifts were ranked using criteria such as production value, subject relevancy, and interactivity on a 1 – 5 star scale. 3* gifts, being the average, represented a quality similar to Facebook virtual gifts. Sales and conversion data were compared between the ranked goods, finding that 5* gift content drove 3.7x the revenue of 3* content.  Conclusion: the quality of goods has a profound effect on perceived value. Publishers selling virtual goods sell more and fetch higher prices by well designed merchandise tailored to their sites. FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO

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The Rise Of The Virtual Street

SRAMANA MITRA -- July 19 -- While the “real” economy has been tumbling for the past two years, social apps, online gaming, and the virtual economy have proven to be fairly resilient. Some reasons for this resilience could be that people have more free time, and that they generally don’t mind making small payments on virtual goods. The worldwide virtual goods market is estimated to be around $5 billion, with 80% coming from Asia and only $200m to 400m from the US. Several players provide technology and content to power virtual gifts. Viximo is one of the dominant players in this space. Facebook also sells virtual gifts and is said to make around $50m a year from them. FULL ARTICLE @ SRAMANA MITRA

Mark Brooks: Viximo offers quality virtual goods, running in a platform that helps dating and social networking sites get up and running quickly, and get it right first time.  Viximo is a sponsor of this blog and a client of Courtland Brooks.

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Top 3 Reasons Why People Buy Virtual Goods

VIXIMO -- July 14 -- The Virtual Goods industry is growing extremely  quickly. Some estimate the size of the industry  to reach $5.5 billion globally this year. Virtual goods are sold in four primary  arenas; Social Networks, Online Dating Sites, Games and Virtual Worlds.  To understand virtual goods we need to understand what drives this value system:

-  Virtual goods help users stand out from the crowd - Paying for avatar clothing, hair styles, and other accessories is natural to ensure you establish a visual identity that represents you. Users who distinguish themselves more on dating sites are getting more dates.

- Virtual goods help users express themselves - MySpace allows users to customize their profile pages to express their personal style and interests.  This feature is so popular it is widely regarded as one of a few reasons why MySpace was so successful in gaining traction.  

- Virtual Goods help users to gain an advantage - Users can purchase a “featured spot”  in search results to increase exposure to the site’s audience and thus increase their chances of being noticed by a potential mate.
FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO BLOG

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.