Interview: Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin on Google, Mobile, and Updates

When Worlds.com announced last week that it had appointed Thomas Duterme, a New Business Development Manager who assesses new business opportunities at Google, as a non-executive board member, it prompted some speculation about a further relationship with Google and its rumored virtual world. Duterme was unable to comment, but Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin was happy to share a little more about the appointment and where Worlds.com is heading.

On Google

"Google has a policy that they don't let board members hold interviews," explained Kidrin. "It'd be too much confusion about what may be Google matters and what may be Worlds matters, but Google had to vet his joining the board to make sure Worlds wasn't doing anything competitive and that what he'd be privy to wouldn't be in conflict with what Google is pursuing, which means from my interpretation that we have good access to Google and we're not overstepping them."

When asked if that meant Worlds.com would be involved with a Google virtual world, Kidrin simply said that "I know what I've been told, and to the extent of Tom's experience at Google and that he's able to look at confidential material there's no conflict. I can't elaborate on that."

That's not to rule out future collaboration. Kidrin did add that there's still potential and that it's hard to ignore the ties.

"Clearly we have access to Google through Tom as well as Bernie Stolar, who sold AdScape to Google and has been a consultant with them [and joined the Worlds.com board in December]," said Kidrin.  "At some point, we may entertain a deeper conversation, but our focus is to bring in people that have experience with virtual worlds and ad sales in new and emerging media and markets. One of the strengths of Tom is that he's fluent in Mandarin. We see that as a valuable market."

A Non-Google Future

Aside from speculation over Google, Kidrin says that Worlds.com still has plenty of other options to look forward to. After being hit hard by the Dot Com bust, Worlds.com has finally gotten its books back in order as a publicly reporting company. That both creates a better investment opportunity in Worlds as well as making it easier to be public about its activities.

For now Kidrin said that the company has "a couple of contracts with significant entertainment companies." While he couldn't name any names, he said that "one has been fairly present in the 3D space."

"Part of this was an affirmation that under contract Worlds had the ability to build something," he continued. "It's one thing for me to say that Worlds has the platform and is competitive with Second Life or Trilogy and another to do it. Those contracts were basically 'show us what you can do.' One of the advantages of Worlds is to build a client which is much smaller than most services out there. Worlds' browser is less than 5MB and we can stream worlds and update on the fly. This contract was a very comprehensive world that we delivered for 16MB, including the world and client. To compare that, another world [on a different platform] with half the assets was 75MB and required a more powerful computer. We showed ours off on a 486."

Mobile

With Worlds' dedication to a lighter client, it makes sense for the company to look to the mobile market. Kidrin previously highlighted that Worlds' board members point in that direction too. Now the company  is working  towards a specific mobile product.

"We are literally right now in negotiations with a company, we're talking very closely, that's doing millions of dollars in mobile and has a keen interest in them being part of Worlds," said Kidrin. "They are in the mobile business and have a worldwide footprint. They have a keen interest in 3D and have built a platform that is more of a 2.5D world and has 100,000 members in that platform. They're interested in integrating with Worlds and upscaling that to a fully immersive environment while maintaining the mobile environment that they have their chops in."

That sounds suspiciously like Habbo's MiniFriday, but Kidrin would only comment that it's "In a similar vein, without saying more."

He did note that this company is also interested in interactive TV with a mobile virtual worlds tie-in.

"There's a lot going on with mobile speaking to the television signal through premium SMS," said Kidrin. "With a Worlds application, you'd see your avatar moving and dancing with a broadcast signal sent from your cellphone. You could talk and chat and that could appear on a TV screen with your friends who are maybe on a Web platform. It's tying the three paltforms together and using that in a television program."

When we last spoke, Kidrin discussed a similar project with British Sky Broadcasting and CellCast. The project is still ongoing, so he couldn't reveal anymore, but this new effort will also be with a partner working with CellCast on a "more detailed platform."

The New Release

With it's new board roster, Worlds.com is ramping up to release an updated platform, complete with a new rendering engine and an internal economy system. Unfortunately, there's no official time line.

"It's in the debugging process," said Kidrin. "A new rendering engine adds weight, and we're trying to keep that footprint as small as possible. We could release something tomorrow that would be quite good comparatively to what's out there, but we're interested in getting that under 10 megs and asking, 'Can you stream it?' If we're adding this new rendering engine and avatar sets, we don't want to get chunky on it."

There should be more news soon. Kidrin said he wanted to tie the latest board announcement to two other news bits, but that both are still tied up in negotiations.

For now,  Kidrin just added that "There's some stuff now that I can say maybe in the next week or so that I'll be able to talk about that ties into the election cycle. That should be interesting."

Comments

[mark]

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/05/interview-world.html

quote.....There should be more news soon. Kidrin said he wanted to tie the latest board announcement to two other news bits, but that both are still tied up in negotiations.

For now, Kidrin just added that "There's some stuff now that I can say maybe in the next week or so that I'll be able to talk about that ties into the election cycle. That should be interesting."

end quote......

Now July any news, new interviews, any real hard concreat developments? New engin spec? features, partners?

[The Haggler]

Thom Kidrin is a huge bag of failsauce.

Him suing MMO makers for patent infringement is like the builders of the internet suing google and trying to take its profits. It's like the makers of the first FPS game suing every other FPS game making company. MMO is a GENRE, his case is gonna just make him look like a big jerk publicly, which is already happening. I hope Worlds.com gets countersued for being fail and goes out of business.

PS
US patent laws are retarded and that system needs to be entirely done away with and reworked imo.

[yahweh]

I own the patent on a virtual visualization property, used by billions of users daily , it's called imagination. -god

[shaggy]

MMO's need not fear this company. It has all the makings of a scam company and with no concrete products or technology other than vapourware.