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Along with announcing that its avatar and 3D virtual spaces platform had reached over 20 million registered users, IMVU officially made its public debut earlier this week after spending four years in stealth mode.
IMVU reportedly generates $1 million in revenue per month through its micro-payments economy and catalog of purchasable virtual goods, and the company plans to expand on that through a partnership with prepaid card provider InComm. Soon, prepaid cards for IMVU credits will be available in Target, 7-11, Blockbuster, and Speedway stores throughout the U.S.
IMVU CEO and president Cary Rosenzweig took some time to talk with Worlds in Motion about the now public platform, including its growing virtual goods catalog and plans for attracting new users.
Why make your public debut now?
Rosenzweig: It has to do with celebrating these milestones. The 20 million registered users was a real milestone for us. We've also had the world's largest catalog for some time now. We recently crossed the 2 millionth item we've ever created, too.
It's time that we start telling the story. I think we have a better handle on what exactly IMVU is. For a long time, there were many different elements to it that we've been identifying. It's about people, and it's about our members meeting others from around the world.
All of this came together, and we decided that it's time.
What are your plans for attracting new users?
Rosenzweig: We're trying to talk to as many influencers and experts in a variety of areas that are related to us, whether that's gaming, business, or technology. We're also going to reach out to websites and blogs related to the interest areas that many of our users care about, whether that's anime, goth, vampire fights, all kinds of things. Our objective is to focus initially on those interest areas and share with them that they have an interest in this topic.
We will do advertising, but we haven't done that yet. wW believe that's something we can do at any point in time. We're trying to create something that's durable and sustainable for a long period of time. In order to do that, we believe that being dependent on advertising is not the proper thing to do.
Can you describe IMVU's animated 3D scenes?
Rosenzweig: [They're] fairly unique. Let me set up a contrast - our founders came from There.com, which is also a virtual world. The emphasis there is on the world. The geographic space is a critical aspect. When they left there and built IMVU, they turned that philosophy on its head.
IMVU is avatar centric, not land centric. How that manifests itself is a tremendous amount of attention to the avatar itself. Our avatars are the most beautiful and expressive in the world.
Rosenzweig: They exist in virtual rooms, though "room" is a poor word to describe them. The concept is virtual space, which is a limited space that's can look like a room, or it can look like it has unlimited space. One can be in a coffee house, or flying on a carpet, or sitting in an airplane. Basically, whatever our developers - which we call "content creators" - can imagine, they can create.
How much of your catalog has been created by IMVU's own employees?
Rosenzweig: We have over 1.7 million items in the catalog, of which 500,000 are 2D stickers. 1.2 million are fully 3D virtual items. 2,000 were originally created by IMVU employees. Everything else is created by the [users].
Over 100,000 of the 20 million users are registered as content creators. Tens of thousands are actively creating items. Dozens have quit their dayjobs by developing items for sale in the IMVU catalog, as we have a very sophisticated internal economy that supports all this.
Can you describe more about that economy?
Rosenzweig: Somebody takes the credits they get from IMVU, and it goes to the item's creator. At the point where the item is sold, IMVU takes some of these credits back. We call it a sink to pull credits out of the economy to prevent inflation.Numerically, the vast majority of people who sell those items take the credit and go back into the catalog themselves to buy more stuff.
Within IMVU, there's status with being a creator. Some of them are very successful, as they've created amazing things, and lots of people buy their creations. We allow them to take those credits and trade them for cash from IMVU members, so they're in a competition with us.
We have an internal system that creates tremendous incentive, not only social, but creative and now financial, to attract the best creators. Many, many more said that it brings in a little money a month. We're proud of that.
What sort of membership levels are available?
Rosenzweig: There are others with this business model; we're not unique. The vast majority of members use IMVU for free. When they initially get started, we give them some free items and credits to get them started. Most people then purchase more credits so that they can enjoy the benefits of customizing themselves better.
In just 5 minutes, you can personalize the experience, and no one would look like you. We do offer what we call VIP subscriptions - those are for people who, in addition to buying credits, get a slug of credits each month, plus free items. They also get to join VIP groups and forums. It's another way to participate.
