ICYou AB, a Sweden-based company formed in 2007 by entrepreneur Fredrik Nilsson, opened its Swedish version of Interactive City in the fall of 2007 and is looking at a global launch in the spring of 2008. Aimed at blending the real world with the virtual, Interactive City has a heavy focus on shopping, for both real and virtual goods. The company is also looking for real-world business to take place in Interactive City, and claims that "well-reputed big businesses are already queuing to get a place in Interactive City from the start."
"Today we are seeing a growing need for individuals to meet and socialize with others in so-called virtual communities, and at the time businesses' need to find novel, effective marketing channels in order to reach this new and fast-growing market segment," CEO Lars-Erik Ottenvall said in a statement. "Interactive City offers a unique platform for interactivity with the real world and it will generate revenue for all parts involved on different levels."
Users can purchase one of 50,000 50-Euro apartments to store their virtual gear in. After the initial run, the company says it will open up a second-hand trading market, though the website says that only 100 or more apartments have been sold so far.
In order to encourage shopping and commerce, ICYou notes the inclusion of bonus points for conducting market surveys or recommending products in-world that can be exchanged for real or virtual goods. It sounds like--though this isn't official--that each avatar will have personal identification attached to it, making Interactive City a potential mine for demographics studies.
From the website: "ICYou's technique offers you an exceptional tool that gives you access to statistics on visitors, which will help you find out exactly who your target audience is – age, interest, shopping habits and more."
The initial app will be run as a downloadable, Windows-only client, though the company says that that's subject to update. It's unclear how representative the videos are (the screenshots all come with disclaimers), but the world looks pretty nice so far.
Your site link is broken. All new startup's come with problems.
Posted by: Fred Walker aka Movemaster | February 05, 2008 at 06:21 AM
Those graphics look amazing..how is the network going to cope? Will there be serious lag?
Posted by: Andy | February 07, 2008 at 03:34 AM