Habbo and Penguin invite you to play
Internet Second Life is the star in the media. But other worlds are booming more. About virtual worlds and their opportunities for advertisers.
Internet Second Life is the star in the media. But other worlds are booming more. About virtual worlds and their opportunities for advertisers. After school, Elias Hauenstein likes to spend his free time with friends. He plays football or helps his grandfather in the garage on free afternoons. After dinner, Elias withdraws and turns his back on the real world. He logs onto the internet and immerses himself in virtual worlds for hours. His territory is not the utopian world of Second Life. Elias, 10 years old, prefers the Habbo Hotel or Webkinz.Habbo Hotel is a meeting place for young people his age. They meet up to chat in rooms they have set up themselves. Elias chats about football or school. On the side, he feeds Hippo, his cyber stuffed animal, in another browser window. A few days ago, he received the cuddly toy from his uncle overseas, which has since sold millions of copies. Using the security code provided, Elias was able to bring the creature to life online. Since then, he has been feeding and caring for it like a Tamagotchi. As a reminder, the Japanese toy was a worldwide bestseller in the 1990s. The electronic animal had to be kept alive with the help of three buttons.
Upward trend for online worlds 10-year-old Elias is part of a booming phenomenon. More and more people are meeting in virtual and interactive internet environments. The younger generations in particular are discovering online playgrounds. Market researchers from Hitwise assume that more than 80 percent of Internet users will regularly spend their time in a pixel world in 2011. Today, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Fittkau & Maass, the figure is 30%.
Virtual gaming is not a subculture. The market is worth billions. The consulting firm Screen Digest estimates global revenues of 1.5 billion dollars. And that is from membership fees alone. Experts from the Gartner Group estimate that 526 million dollars were earned with subscriptions to virtual worlds in the USA in 2006. Fantasy worlds are particularly popular with children and young people.
The boom is now also affecting traditional media groups. News Corp, whose boss is media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has its eye on the online children's playground Club Penguins. However, its offer of 400 million dollars falls on deaf ears with the owners. Although the amount is roughly equivalent to the price Murdoch paid for the homepage portal MySpace. The homepage portal is one of the most popular Internet sites with the highest data traffic in the USA.
Club Penguins is the MySpace for 7 to 12-year-olds. Children have been waddling around the net with their pixel penguins since 2005. Starting with 15,000 members, the club now has more than four million registered children. On good days, up to 50,000 kids join. And the trend is rising. It is therefore obvious that Murdoch and, incidentally, Google are interested in the penguins. No target group is as receptive to advertising as children. Once a brand is anchored in the minds of children, it is difficult to banish it from their minds.
However, owner Lane Merrifield has other plans for the portal. Selling it is out of the question for her. Instead, she wants to set up an ad-free zone for the children online. She is not interested in advertising. After all, the club mainly earns money by selling fan merchandise and toys. This is not a business that the entrepreneur runs as a sideline. The children inundate the online store with requests. According to Mediamark Research, things are looking good globally. 47% of 9 to 17-year-olds ask their parents to buy their toys online only. Parents in the USA spend 112 billion dollars a year on toys for their children. Merrifield is aware of this.
The Penguin Club is not the only up-and-coming game world with great potential. Gaiaonline.com is also flourishing and is currently the most visited fantasy world. "Join the fastest growing online hangout", advertises the Internet world on the homepage. Second Life (SL) is nothing compared to this. The number of registered users on Gaiaonline.com doubles every year. The site regularly appears in the top ten rankings in the USA. Second Life is far behind. Despite the boom and intensive reporting. The renowned business journal Businessweek estimates that just 0.00091 percent of American web traffic is attributable to Second Life. The unknown medieval game RuneScape accounts for 0.17 percent.
When you read figures like these, the hype surrounding the second life raises questions. The many SL stories and diaries in the newspapers reporting on virtual Duckburg are incomprehensible. Yet young people and the majority of users spend their free time in other online spheres. In Switzerland, this is mainly in the Habbo Hotel or in the football world of Hattrick. Both games do not require elaborate graphic design. The Swiss are addicted to these games and spend an astonishing number of hours transferring players, building stadiums, setting up rooms or on virtual scavenger hunts.
Second Life is not keeping upHabbo Hotel has more than 75 million young members worldwide. In Switzerland, there are currently over one million registered players who meet in the 2D rooms. And since 2005, at least 400,000 new "Habbos" have joined every year. On rainy weekends, up to 2,600 young people meet simultaneously in the digital hotel lobby to chat in the Swiss version.
The business simulation Second Life is not keeping pace in terms of the number of players. A study by internet consultancy firm Fittkau & Maass shows that the gold rush atmosphere surrounding Second Life ends in disappointment for the majority of users. For 70 percent, according to the consultants, the first visit is also the last. Two out of three players are deadbeats. If you want to set up a Second Life presence in the form of a pompous pixel palace, think twice. In contrast to the other up-and-coming worlds, the Linden Lab world is yawningly empty. A video by a blogger shows this impressively. He regularly visited 60 companies and their branches and snapped a picture each time he stopped by. He compiled the photos into a movie. The sobering conclusion: yawning emptiness on site.
Thousands of transfers - every dayIn the Finnish online hit Habbo Hotel, on the other hand, you can always find people somewhere since 2001. In the Swedish football world Hattrick, too, there are always several thousand players online at the same time. Thousands of transfers are made every day. In many Swiss companies, there is even a ban on Hattrick. The reason: the manager simulation is addictive.
According to Habbo Hotel operator Sulake, the digital hotel is the most successful online game for young people. The axonometric 2D world scores highly with users. Advertisers also appreciate the virtual guest house. The Swiss hotel version is extremely popular for in-game advertising. Major corporations such as Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, Universal Pictures and UBS invest money in product launches.
Each campaign costs 20,000 francs. There are no upper limits. Users are not bothered by the advertising. This is also because the operators do not place clumsy banner ads, but instead place advertising in such a way that it is perceived as a playful element. Take Ovomaltine, for example. In a labyrinth, players had to answer questions about the new Ovo bar and find their way to the destination at the same time. The interstitials, which are like interruptive advertising on television, also achieve excellent click rates, according to the operators Sulake.
In this respect, Habbo Hotel is a success story when it comes to in-game advertising. Sulake has high hopes for its chat game platform and its advertising offer. Unlike fantasy games such as World of Warcraft, the hotel environment lends itself well to brand building. The environment is free of violence.
Christian Lüscher
Upward trend for online worlds 10-year-old Elias is part of a booming phenomenon. More and more people are meeting in virtual and interactive internet environments. The younger generations in particular are discovering online playgrounds. Market researchers from Hitwise assume that more than 80 percent of Internet users will regularly spend their time in a pixel world in 2011. Today, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Fittkau & Maass, the figure is 30%.
Virtual gaming is not a subculture. The market is worth billions. The consulting firm Screen Digest estimates global revenues of 1.5 billion dollars. And that is from membership fees alone. Experts from the Gartner Group estimate that 526 million dollars were earned with subscriptions to virtual worlds in the USA in 2006. Fantasy worlds are particularly popular with children and young people.
The boom is now also affecting traditional media groups. News Corp, whose boss is media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has its eye on the online children's playground Club Penguins. However, its offer of 400 million dollars falls on deaf ears with the owners. Although the amount is roughly equivalent to the price Murdoch paid for the homepage portal MySpace. The homepage portal is one of the most popular Internet sites with the highest data traffic in the USA.
Club Penguins is the MySpace for 7 to 12-year-olds. Children have been waddling around the net with their pixel penguins since 2005. Starting with 15,000 members, the club now has more than four million registered children. On good days, up to 50,000 kids join. And the trend is rising. It is therefore obvious that Murdoch and, incidentally, Google are interested in the penguins. No target group is as receptive to advertising as children. Once a brand is anchored in the minds of children, it is difficult to banish it from their minds.
However, owner Lane Merrifield has other plans for the portal. Selling it is out of the question for her. Instead, she wants to set up an ad-free zone for the children online. She is not interested in advertising. After all, the club mainly earns money by selling fan merchandise and toys. This is not a business that the entrepreneur runs as a sideline. The children inundate the online store with requests. According to Mediamark Research, things are looking good globally. 47% of 9 to 17-year-olds ask their parents to buy their toys online only. Parents in the USA spend 112 billion dollars a year on toys for their children. Merrifield is aware of this.
The Penguin Club is not the only up-and-coming game world with great potential. Gaiaonline.com is also flourishing and is currently the most visited fantasy world. "Join the fastest growing online hangout", advertises the Internet world on the homepage. Second Life (SL) is nothing compared to this. The number of registered users on Gaiaonline.com doubles every year. The site regularly appears in the top ten rankings in the USA. Second Life is far behind. Despite the boom and intensive reporting. The renowned business journal Businessweek estimates that just 0.00091 percent of American web traffic is attributable to Second Life. The unknown medieval game RuneScape accounts for 0.17 percent.
When you read figures like these, the hype surrounding the second life raises questions. The many SL stories and diaries in the newspapers reporting on virtual Duckburg are incomprehensible. Yet young people and the majority of users spend their free time in other online spheres. In Switzerland, this is mainly in the Habbo Hotel or in the football world of Hattrick. Both games do not require elaborate graphic design. The Swiss are addicted to these games and spend an astonishing number of hours transferring players, building stadiums, setting up rooms or on virtual scavenger hunts.
Second Life is not keeping upHabbo Hotel has more than 75 million young members worldwide. In Switzerland, there are currently over one million registered players who meet in the 2D rooms. And since 2005, at least 400,000 new "Habbos" have joined every year. On rainy weekends, up to 2,600 young people meet simultaneously in the digital hotel lobby to chat in the Swiss version.
The business simulation Second Life is not keeping pace in terms of the number of players. A study by internet consultancy firm Fittkau & Maass shows that the gold rush atmosphere surrounding Second Life ends in disappointment for the majority of users. For 70 percent, according to the consultants, the first visit is also the last. Two out of three players are deadbeats. If you want to set up a Second Life presence in the form of a pompous pixel palace, think twice. In contrast to the other up-and-coming worlds, the Linden Lab world is yawningly empty. A video by a blogger shows this impressively. He regularly visited 60 companies and their branches and snapped a picture each time he stopped by. He compiled the photos into a movie. The sobering conclusion: yawning emptiness on site.
Thousands of transfers - every dayIn the Finnish online hit Habbo Hotel, on the other hand, you can always find people somewhere since 2001. In the Swedish football world Hattrick, too, there are always several thousand players online at the same time. Thousands of transfers are made every day. In many Swiss companies, there is even a ban on Hattrick. The reason: the manager simulation is addictive.
According to Habbo Hotel operator Sulake, the digital hotel is the most successful online game for young people. The axonometric 2D world scores highly with users. Advertisers also appreciate the virtual guest house. The Swiss hotel version is extremely popular for in-game advertising. Major corporations such as Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, Universal Pictures and UBS invest money in product launches.
Each campaign costs 20,000 francs. There are no upper limits. Users are not bothered by the advertising. This is also because the operators do not place clumsy banner ads, but instead place advertising in such a way that it is perceived as a playful element. Take Ovomaltine, for example. In a labyrinth, players had to answer questions about the new Ovo bar and find their way to the destination at the same time. The interstitials, which are like interruptive advertising on television, also achieve excellent click rates, according to the operators Sulake.
In this respect, Habbo Hotel is a success story when it comes to in-game advertising. Sulake has high hopes for its chat game platform and its advertising offer. Unlike fantasy games such as World of Warcraft, the hotel environment lends itself well to brand building. The environment is free of violence.
Christian Lüscher
