Americans spent an estimated $30 million on virtual gifts this past holiday season, November and December 2009.
Maxping says...
What an awfully lot of money! I bet that people just did not
find rexxed.com,
our content web site - or it may have too much content available
for free... tip: submit your digital goods here.
Maxping believes that this trend of buying digital goods is
growing all the time. And what is better for the climate? to buy
carbon dioxide puffed tangible plastic toys or 100% recycled
electrons? I believe, the latter one.
(SANTA CLARA, CA) - January 12, 2010 -
PlaySpan, the global leader in monetization solutions for online
games, virtual worlds, and social networks, and issuer of three
digital goods reports in 2009, today provides an estimate for what
is expected to be the largest virtual goods gift giving season on
record.
The company that empowers digital goods for over 1,000 online
games, virtual worlds, and social networking applications projects
that Americans spent an estimated $30 million on virtual gifts this
past holiday season, November and December 2009.
According to Inside Virtual Goods: Tracking the US Virtual Goods
Market 2009-2010, the digital goods business in the U.S. is
projected at $1B in 2009. PlaySpan's own internal survey also found
that one in five of its digital goods buyers also gave virtual
gifts. About 15% of all virtual gift giving occurred during the
November and December months. These estimates project that $30m of
digital goods were given as virtual gifts during the holiday
season.
PlaySpan's research also found that nearly 1 in 12 Americans
purchased a digital good in 2009, with the average price of a
virtual gift estimated around $3 per transaction.
"The holiday season delivered a spike to our marketplace and
according to our data, other digital goods companies reaped the
benefits of increased consumer interest in virtual gifting. The
visible effect is that there were a few more empty stockings and
missing presents under the tree this year, and we expect this to be
a growing trend over the next few holidays," said Eric Hartness,
Chief Marketing Officer of PlaySpan.
For more information on the digital goods industry or PlaySpan
itself, please contact Eric Hartness at eric.hartness@playspan.com.
PlaySpan partnered with Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc.
http://www.magid.com and VGMarket,http://vgmarket.com, to conduct
and analyze the digital good studies.
About PlaySpan
PlaySpanTM is the global leader in monetization
solutions for over 1,000 online games, virtual worlds, and social
networks. PlaySpan's patent-pending in-game digital goods commerce
and micropayment platform enables game publishers and developers to
generate new revenues, acquire new users, and extend the loyalty of
existing users.
PlaySpan also offers global payment solutions through its
subsidiary PayByCash®with 85+ payment methods in 180 countries.
The ULTIMATE GAME CARD® is used by consumers to pay for 1,000
online and social networking games. It is available in about 45,000
retail locations across North America and growing rapidly
worldwide.
Social network payment solutions are available through Spare
Change©. Acquired by PlaySpan in April 2009, Spare Change is
the first and leading payments platform designed specifically for
social networks. Featured on over 700 applications, across
Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo, Spare Change empowers developers to
successfully monetize their applications through micro payments.
The Spare Change platform enables users to make safe, convenient,
and friendly 1-click purchases through a variety of funding
sources.
PlaySpan is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in
Charlottesville, Virginia, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mumbai. Investors
include Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC and Novel TMT
Ventures. The company won the 2009 OnHollywood Category Award for
Best Gaming Company.
For more information about PlaySpan, visit: http://corp.playspan.com
For more information about Spare Change, visit: www.sparechangepayments.com
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