BarbieGirls Launches V.I.P. Subscription Service

At Virtual Worlds 2008 in April, Mattel Announced that it would be phasing out the physical toys and MP3 players that granted users VIP access to its BarbieGirls.com virtual world  and replacing them with a subscription. Details of the V.I.P. plan are set to be announced today. For $5.99 per month, users can deck their characters out in V.I.P.-only tiara, gain access to new regions like a fantasy theme park or a tree house for pets, play new multiplayer games, and purchase exclusive virtual goods.

"The success of BarbieGirls – particularly among older girls, with 85 percent of our registered users over age eight – demonstrates that girls are looking for a new way to play with the brand they love and grew up with, just in a new format relevant to today’s tech-savvy girls,"  Chuck Scothon, General Manager and SVP, Girls Division, Mattel Brands, said in a statement.  "With the launch of Barbie Girls V.I.P. we’re giving girls more content than ever before, including the best fashion, beauty and social play, as well as many new games and an expanded Barbie Girls world.  Online content is simply just a new toy, and we believe our quality content is well-valued with this new version of Barbie Girls V.I.P."

Pricing

In our talk back then with Scothon and Rosie O’Neill, Senior Brand Manager, Barbie Tech, the two discussed a variety of reasons for switching away from the MP3 player. The initial goal of the product was to connect to girls as they grew up and shifted away from dolls to consumer electronics, but many in the target audience already had MP3 players. They wanted to get at the virtual world, but the content mattered significantly more than the toy. It just made more sense to sell the content directly instead of going through the two-step process.

Users who have purchased MP3 players, which will be phased out over the year, will have a free 1-year subscription, and non-subscribers can still play in the free zone. The question now, in a space increasingly dominated by advertising- and microtransaction-supported worlds, is how much users want that exclusive content in a purely virtual form. Wagner James  Au at GigaOM is, at least, a little skeptical.

It does seem like an move that runs against the market at first, with an increasing number of worlds and online games  moving away from subscriptions. The change in cost also seems a little counter-intuitive:The MP3 players, which provided access to unique online content, cost $60 at retail with extra accessories running about $10. A year-long V.I.P. subscription, at $71.88, will cost just a bit about $11 more than one  MP3 player and its virtual content combined with a physical and digital accessory.

I don't point that out to raise anybody's hackles over the price hike. In fact, I think it's a perfectly reasonable price if you're going to opt for subscriptions over microtransactions or advertising. It's certainly not above the ordinary: Puzzle Pirate subscriptions start at  $9.95/month and drop to $74.95/year; OurWorld charges users $5.99/month to advance past level 10 or own apartments; and Vizwoz goes between £5.95 and £2.95/month.

More importantly, it's a market tested price: Club Penguin charges $5.95/month, though drops down to $57.95 for the year.

So, no, I definitely don't think it's  a bad move. I just find it very interesting. People discuss virtual goods as on par (or almost) with real gifts for many people, especially in the younger set, but here's a case of virtual content actually going for more than if it had a physical aspect accompanying it.

There are certainly more features for the V.I.P. subscriber than the MP3 purchaser, even, it seems, in comparison to the free users for each. Regardless, that still means users would be paying more for a purely virtual Barbie experience (albeit a richer one) than a virtual experience that accompanied a Barbie to play with in the real world.

It'll be interesting to see how that takes off, but with the rate that BarbieGirls.com has been growing, I'd bet on success.

[On a side note, I was going to compare the change in price to the idea of purchasing an MP3 album for more than the physical CD and then ripping the MP3s to get the purely digital experience as well. Then I realized that you actually do pay the same price for the new Best of Radiohead MP3 collection from iTunes as you would for the physical 2-CD set at Best Buy. Charging more for a virtual Barbie seems pretty normal.]

Parents

Of course, equally important to getting girls to play with a virtual Barbie is convincing parents to pay for it. As it is, parents have already been visiting BarbieGirls.com to play and check in on their children, but Mattel launched Parents' Place in April to give them more tools to monitor their children online. Since the launch, Mattel reports that over 100,000 parent accounts have been registered. This summer will also see the roll out of new tools to create collaborative rules that Scothon and O'Neill discussed in April.

"We know that while girls are the primary audience, it is critical that parents feel just as positive about their daughter’s online experience at BarbieGirls.com.  We want to provide both girls and parents the tools to have the safest and best online experience possible," Scothon explained in a statement. "Every parent has a different level of familiarity with online play, as well as different rules for their daughter’s online experiences.  Our goal is to support each parent’s and daughter’s choices in the online world in a way unparalleled in the virtual space."

Comments

[angel]

HELLO I WANT TO JOIN BARBIE GIRLS VIP FOR FREE PLz GIVE ME THE VIP MEMBERSHIPB FOR FREE I M VERY GREATFULL TO U ITS MY ID SWEET4ANY@LIVE.COM PLz GIVE ME THE MEMBERSHIP OF VIP AND ANSWER ME!

[tara]

plz plz plz i beg u make v.i.p. free me and a lot more girls will join and we will live happily ever after

[orla]

i have just bought the barbie girl mp3...cani not be a v.i.p for free??
please?

[hasba]

i have just brought a barbie girl today but now i have to be a v.i.p can i be a v.i.p for free please i beg u please make me a v.i.p

[mileycyrus]

i want to join barbie v.i.p i can't because my mom and dad will not let me i luv barbie v.i.p i can't believe u need to be a v.i.p to buy stuff to get an makeover and hair do manicures and design clothes i want to be a v.i.p sooooooo badly plz email me if u let me be a v.i.p

p.s we are really poor

[barbie]

u can be a vip free u can buy a barbiegirls mp3 player

[spriha123]

hi i am spriha..
i have log in to barbie girl..
perhaps i am not a vip member ..
i really want to be a vip member..
plzz could you give me vip for free..
i would be very thankfull..if not it is still okay..but this is a good website..

[Molly]

May you please make me a free VIP, i go on this website alot and i think it is outradous the price of a barbie girls VIP, too bad itwasent free, please, i will be very thankful if you do.
Thanks very very much!

[Ruth South]

What do you have to do to get my daughter on the V.I.P

[soo.somy]

ya realy we all wanna a vip email me if any won wanna give me a vip

[rhizzamaecutie]

Hi..
Iam a barbie girl member.
when i've ask my mom to register me in barbie girls vip we tried my mom get her credit card and try but it keep on error error and error,...
so pls now give me a V.I.p membership...

plsplsplsplsplsplssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
i'll wait..

[kavya]

i visited the site barbiegirls.com and fell in love with it.
i asked my parents if i could be a vip
member but they refused.
please please let me be a vip member for free.
i beg your pardon

[zidhna]

i hate this cox i cant be a v.i.p. y dont u all giv us freeeee 4 allof us. u want money? plz
plz i beg u to make v.i.p freee

[Pooja Nuti]

I feel Barbie VIP should be free. When you give barbie membership you cant do anything and alot of our parents feel scared to give out info. of credit cards out like my mom. i asked her if i could have barbie vip but she said NO.. this is not fair you have been so nice to give us barbie.com but now alot of girls want this vip and you want us to pay? To me if you made Barbiegirl vip free you people would gain soooo much popularity more then now. So now I ask you please make Barbie vip free or all us girls will never get the pleasure of barbie vip. And I thought barbie was a roll model that let us play her games for FREE and she did not care about if we could afford it! ButI guess I was wrong all she wants is our money and not let us play cool games ! I am Sorry I was wrong. but if you do think barbie is a roll model and is not moneyminded then make barbie vip free so all us girl can ENJOY FOR FREE PLEASE!! We all really want to be a vip

[mayen]

how do i play the game? i already sighned in and loged in

[Ileisha LEELEEmip]

plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz let me and other girls arond the nation be a vip for free we all want a chance at being a vip u say evrey one deserves to be a barbie girl and can always have one but u sassy people just make girls lik me feel bad when we see vips walking arund barbie town everyones not rich but if u change your mind about everyone being able to be a barbie girl just change mine here username:mipgirly1 password:bustiebaby11 thank u if u do change it but if u don't i will pray that god has mercy on your soul.God bless u alllllllllllllllllllll

[berkeley]

I WANT IT TO BE FREE!

[barbie girls]

pls make v.i.p free i hate barbiegirls.com cax i cant be a v.i.p for free :(:( sum one pls make me v.i.p than i can do wat ever to the one who give me pls pls pls!!

[Jenny]

Ugh, I'm sick of seeing these pathetic comments begging to be VIP. It's not your fault that your parents don't want to waste money on pixels. Can't pay, then don't play. Stop begging for VIP, chances are, you ain't getting a membership if you can't pay. When you all grow up, you'll understand. Pisses me off when I see comments like "plzzz...can i be vip free?"

[lusia]

I have also bought the barbie girl mp3...nd im also a member but not an vip ....i also got more tan 657 points.so wil u make me as a vip.my name is Aaslan