Saturday, June 20, 2009

Microtransactions to Fuel Virtual World Growth

The key drivers [of revenue growth] will be microtransactions, subscriptions, and advertising/sponsorships, with microtransactions expected to grow from slightly over $1 billion in 2008 to $17.3 billion in 2015. Microtransactions will account for approximately 86 percent of all revenue generated by virtual worlds.

Here's how the company sees growth over the next six years:

                        2009       2015
Adult:               11.5        32.5
Tween/Teen     125          395.6
Kids                  50           209.9
Total                186.5       638

Cumulative Unique Virtual World Registrants, projected, in millions, worldwide.

Overall, Strategy Analytics said it sees the global population of virtual world users growing from 186 million today to almost 640 million by 2015 -- that's almost one hundred million new players a year, a nearly 25 percent compounded annual growth rate. The fastest growing demographic is kids between the ages of 5 and 9 which the company predicts will grow 27 percent; the current largest segment of virtual worlds players, tweens and teens, should grow by some 21 percent, according to the company.

Overall, as virtual worlds continue to improve the user experience, Strategy Analytics see a conversion rate from registrations to active users at a growth rate of 38 percent through 2015.

Article Link (Virtual Worlds News)



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