Planet Cazmo Gets Microtransactions; Prompts Traffic Boost

Youth-oriented virtual world Planet Cazmo added microtransactions to its environment last Monday and, according the company, immediately saw a spike in traffic and interest. Currently Planet Cazmo offers clothing for avatars, body parts, and a new space-themed environment that users need to buy spaceships to get to. Cazmo has talked about virtual goods as a revenue stream before, so that's not a surprise. What is particularly interesting to me, is just how hungry the youthful audience is to be able to pay for special customization options.  In a world that's always been driven by viral growth, that growth says to me that there's an ever-broadening interest in paying for exclusive virtual goods.

"We launched e-commerce Monday and have seen our biggest traffic spikes since then with thousands of simultaneous users," said Michael Levine, president of Pileated Pictures, the company behind Planet Cazmo. "We are seeing over a 56% retention rate of visitors to the site, which needless to say, we think is pretty darn good! Sales have been strong in the first few days. Our next step is to come out with our membership plan shortly as an alternative to the micro's. The Micro-transactions ultimately will be there for the people who don't want to commit to a full membership yet but want to dabble."