FooMojo announced today the launch of FooPets, a realistic virtual pet that brings the company out of almost a year in stealth mode. That time hasn't been slow, though. Under the name Bonehead Labs, the company released Pokey! to Facebook in February and grew at over 60,000 users per day at its peak to reach, according to CEO Ron Hornbaker, about 3 million regular users and 1.5 active monthly users now. FooPets takes the already popular virtual pet idea and expands.
"I don't think anyone would argue that the virtual pet model is a well-proven one," said Hornbaker. "What has been done to date has largely been static images, or flat 2D images, or fantasy creatures like penguins, or plush toys, or dragons. Nobody has really nailed the puppies and kittens that take our realistic experience to the Web space."
Hornbaker, who previously created my personal favorite BookCrossings.com, was a veterinarian before becoming a software entrepreneur. That experience, he says, informs FooPets. While other virtual pets let users get away with what would amount to murder in the real world, FooPets makes users put a little more effort in.
If users go away for the weekend, they need to find someone to watch their pet or take it to the kennel. If they don't want to chance costly, risky operations down the line, they need to invest in heartworm pills now. If they neglect their pet, it will be taken away and put up for adoption.
That's significantly more adult than virtual pets like Webkinz, but Pokey's success on Facebook points to a strong interest from the more adult audience. Hornbaker says his audience is about 85% women and runs 18-45. The highlight, though, is young mothers, 25 and up, using it with their kids.
"It's either a replacement for a pet in the real world or just something extra," said Hornbaker. "We've heard from moms playing with Pokey with their toddlers while their real dog is sitting in the corner. In a way that's sort of sad, but it also shows the attachment that you can have there. I think we've just hit the sweet spot. "
Hornbaker points to the Asian craze, particularly in Japan, of virtual pets as a precedent. In particular, he notes that Tamagotchi has done almost a billion dollars in top line revenue over the last 12 years. Users hold funerals for their Tamagotchis and get in car wrecks because they're paying attention to care and feeding.
That's why when Hornbaker went to Japan looking for funding, SoftBank Capital and SoftBank Corp. jumped on to lead a $9.9 million Series A round, more than Hornbaker had been looking for, almost immediately. With an earlier seed round last year, the company has raised a total of $10.7 million.
Going Social With Virtual Pets
But while Tamagotchis are incredibly popular and Nintendo's Nintendogs has sold over 20 million copies around the world, Hornbaker sees the Web--and virtual worlds, social networks, and mobile devices like the iPhone--as essential to Foopets.
"The web does bring huge advantages. It brings the social aspect to it. On Facebook, one of the primary motivators is meeting other Pokey owners. It's sort of the virutal version of taking your dog to a park to meet another girl or guy," he explained. "The motivation of the users is, number one, feeling companionship and needed by the pet. Number two, and it's strong, is the social connection and the feel of having your pet out there on the Web. We're trying to leverage the best of historical virtual pets and evolve."
While FooPets.com will serve as a hub, users will be able to take their pets across the Web. Social network applications are an obvious first step, simply building out of Pokey and expanding to others, including Asian networks like Mixi. Next comes browser extensions, letting users bring their pets with them. An iPhone application is also in the works to keep users' pet with them at all times.
Those are all elements of mobility, but FooPets is also getting more social. The team is at work on a virtual world, which Hornbaker plans to launch in 2009.
"We're going to sort of sidestep into it. Our pets are front and center now, right in your face. We're coming out with a 3D flash room designer so you can design your pets' place, whether it's the living room or yard. Then it's just a baby step to let the pets walk around the environment," he explained. "Then the next baby step is to let multiple pets in the same place.Soon they'll be wandering around the Fooniverse, which is a natural progression to multi-user activities and games and the virtual worlds space."
Realism And Virtual Pets
A large portion of FooMojo's 22-person team is dedicated to designing new pets using techniques and pipelines closer to the film industry than the casual games space. Hornbaker says the attention to detail limits the amount of pets they can produce, but that it's worth it to nail the realistic look online.
Part of that is simply creative choice, but part of it comes from Hornbaker's desire to make a virtual pet that teaches users a little about real pets as well. Users will have to decide how to spend their virtual currencies, on food and pills or studded collars and possible vet visits down the line. He hopes that users will take that experience to the real world.
"We're trying to go with the real decisions of 'do I give this heartworm pill for $6 a month or take a chance and maybe have to deal with a treatment down the line that maybe doesn't work?'" explained Hornbaker. "We're trying to build those economic decisions into the game. I think teenagers who play it are going to come out even more savvy of how to take care of a dog or cat than some of my old veterinary technicians. They're going to learn what it takes to treat or prevent each disease and what the chances are there. There's going to be quite a bit of drama around the realism, and we've seen so far that's where they want to go."
That seems to feed in to the users' relationship with the pets as well. While it may be a bit traumatic for children to have a penguin taken away or killed through negligence, older users seem to want that responsibility. On the Pokey app, puppies don't die or get taken away; they just get hungry.
"Now we're introducing consequences. From the feedback we've received, this is definitely the direction the core active users want to go," said Hornbaker. "They don't like seeing thousands of hungry puppies and the owner not seeing any consequences. We may lose a few and gain much more through the consequences."
Business Models And Revenue
As of launch, FooPets is already a fairly heavily sponsored product. Today FooMojo announced a partnership with Twentieth-Century Fox to release a "Marley and Me"-inspired puppy on Facebook, MySpace,FooPets.com, and the iPhone. The rest are free, but the iPhone app will cost users $.99 and launch, as the first puppy, sometime before December 23.
Twentieth-Century already relationships in the pet goods industry, itself a $41 billion industry in the U.S., and brought some along to FooMojo. In the U.S. Nestlé Purina PetCare has signed onfor cross-promotion with "Marley & Me," featuring Purina Dog Chow as the exclusive food available for U.S. users. Pedigree will do the same in Europe.
As users have to feed their pets every day to maintain proper health, or risk losing the animal, the integration of branded virtual goods holds the promise of over a million daily touchpoints almost instantly.
Sponsorship is actually the third and lowest tier of FooMojo's business plan. The second is a small monthly subscription that will let users adopt more than the first free pet, though Hornbaker suspects that may eventually eclipse the top revenue stream of virtual goods, the majority of which are user-created.
"We're already doing pretty well revenue wise on Facebook just selling dogfood and background images and environments," said Hornbaker. "We have over 1000 members who are contributing and voting on user-generated content that is making its way into our product catalog. We're going to be ramping that up pretty hard with FooPets.com and these 3D spaces. Right now it's very limited and flat, but with these 3D spaces you'll be able to buy different furniture and trees and all sorts of things. I would predict that in a few months we would have tens of thousands items and most will be user-created."
For now, those users are creating either purely for fame or for virtual currency. Users can purchase FooDollars and use them for virtual goods or earn them by selling virtual goods or helping at the Fooshelter or with other users' pets. That currency can't be cashed out, but FooMojo has hired Jim Gross, a former director of finance for Second Life, to bring his experience with the Lindex, Linden Lab's currency exchange, to bear on how to open up FooPets.
FooDollars can be purchased with credit cards and PayPal currently. FooMojo is looking at alternative payment methods, particularly as it grows in Europe and Asia.
On a non-business front, FooMojo has also partnered with the ASPCA and Humane Society of the United States to integrate donation options into FooPets where 100% of the donations will go to the charities. FooMojo has also founded a non-profit, the FooPets Foundation, supported by 1% of its stock and 2% of its employees' time.
"These are some that I felt very strong about personally," said Hornbaker. "I wanted this company to do good while doing well. The last thing I wanted was to be seen as the company that did virtual pets so well that real pets were neglected."
I dunno...I've seen pictures of this, and it feels too much like it's in the Uncanny Valley. They're very realistic for sure, but they look like reanimated animal corpses instead of living pets.
Posted by: Wolf Nanaki | December 17, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Plus I would rather have a pet dragon or alien than a virtual cat! I already have a real one of those!
Posted by: JoeBob | December 18, 2008 at 10:19 AM
FOOPETS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Join the FOOPETS SUCKS GROUP!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123176050584&ref=mf
Posted by: Billy | December 23, 2008 at 06:09 PM
The Change from Pokey to FooPets has been most disappointing to most Facebook users. If anyone would freely go to the Facebook application and read current reviews from those loyal users of the old Pokey to the newly adapted Foopets, one will find that most feel this is a money making venture that basically has lost touch of what the people enjoyed about the experience with their virtual pet and people they would meet through the experience. I feel it is downhill!
Posted by: Deborah | December 24, 2008 at 07:45 PM
They took a good application and destroyed it for the users. It is a shame.
Posted by: Pat | December 24, 2008 at 07:47 PM
I was one of those daily Pokey users, but I won't be continuing under the FooPets system. For one thing, my account was "lost" in the transition so my puppy Bingo is gone along with the food, bones, environments, and furnishings that I worked so hard for over the past six months. Second, I participated BECAUSE of the simplicity! I have two dogs who get excellent daily care. I had Bingo because she was cute and gave me a "break" from my live pets. I already have to find someone to care for them when I go out of town. I don't need that kind of realism. Many others feel the same way. In my case, they lost a 30-year-old male in a professional career viewing their ads on a daily basis. I hope this works for them, but they've gone a route totally opposite what I was looking for.
Posted by: Mark | December 24, 2008 at 10:32 PM
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45920946783#/group.php?gid=45920946783
Posted by: tsem | December 25, 2008 at 02:23 AM
My husband and I both had Pokey puppies through facebook. We had these maybe a month now. We loved it. Puppies that were easy to care for. Our realworld animals - not as easy since they do get sick and die. I lost a real and loved cat this year - I do not want to keep going on foopets where that apparently is a risk. I do not need to be taught animal responsibility since my animal family members are neutered, fed, vetted, loved without foopet instruction models.
Ask Pokey members how many are still using foopets. The only reason foopets can say they have 3 million users - is because a lot of people signed up and then never went back to their animals. They will never bother to delete the app. oh, FYI - their daily users are dropping like flies.
The transition was made to foopets from Pokey before foopets was ready technically.
Good Job Hornbaker - you lost a male 45 and female 42 professionals who saw adds daily. Oh, and we are letting Purina know how their PR dollars are being spent...
I am all for making money - and business - but this was supposed to be fun. Pokey was fun, Foopets is not. The animals are freakish and some are even mean...
Posted by: DEBRA | December 25, 2008 at 11:19 PM
poopets have ruined what was an excellent application that could have been improved with the addition of many of the above features without making it too realistic and without making it impossible to care for pets unless you spend money on them. On Pokey it was possible to earn to get environments. With dedication it was possible to earn a new environment element in a day either by fetching bone or fussing pets. Now doing so decreases karma. Karma doesn't give environments though, it merely dictates how many poodollars you get a day, 1 to 6. An environment is 75 dollars for the back ground, 75 for a mat and 100 for a house. So without visiting others pets that will take about 200 days, this is without all the other elements, clocks, trees etc that hornbaker mentions. This is the reason why we feel conned, why we feel they have turned this in to a business adventure. I also signed up to pokey because my pet wouldn't die, it is sick to make an online pet die that a child could be taking care of on a daily basis. It's a realism that I do not want. The realism of the pets, that Horbaker mentions, the cats especially is very misleading, they look like animated taxi dermy animals. I come online to play wit a nice warm, slightly cartoony cute virtual pet, Not one that looks scary, has fleas, diseases, has to go to a vets and dies. I really do not think that they have done enough research on this.They changed a product that people liked to one they dislike because they've gotten the reason why people liked it totally wrong.
Simplicity & ease of use, ability to achieve goals, feel good factor, attractiveness of pets(cuteness)all in an alternative pretend fantasy world.
Posted by: Joe Bloggs | December 26, 2008 at 03:08 AM
Pokey! was a well-loved Facebook application in its original incarnation. The changes are not being received well by many community members, so the glowing reports and projections in the article are based on a product that basically no longer seems to exist. Personally, I am a pet owner (dogs, cats and a bird), adult and business owner with the willingness and ability to spend discretionary income on my real-life pets and give them the best of care throughout their lives. I certainly didn't ask for nor want a Facebook application to teach me about responsible pet ownership. I have not removed the application yet for a couple of reasons: first, to see if changes might be made to accommodate the wants and needs of the existing community; and second, because existing users have not even been given a way to remove themselves and their database information completely from FooPets.
Posted by: vomviersen | December 26, 2008 at 07:31 AM
I am a Pokey fan..... I want my dog back! This new application is awful and I am so disappointed.
I feel like a real dog has died. So gutted.
You have lost, in me, a mature student who will be recommending the rest of my university cohorts remove this application!
Your advertising dollars are worthless.
Posted by: Susan Stone | December 26, 2008 at 10:24 AM
The information in this article is bogus. There are at least three facebook groups simply devoted to bringing Pokey back. When I woke up one morning, my beloved puppy was gone. I've been taking care of her since February and was looking forward to Christmas. Instead, I got the worst Christmas gift ever. My puppy was stolen from me.
I will not use real money to play an internet game. I need my money to pay for the care of my REAL animals, one of whom has a chronic disease. I am fully aware of what it takes to care for a pet and that is why I loved Pokey. It was fun and easy, but now people will practically be forced to spend hard earned money just to care for a virtual pet at a time when money is tight for so many.
This change came without warning and even though I am a grown woman who is an executive, I still cried when my puppy was stolen from me. What a way to teach people about responsibility. Make off with their pets and then make them sign up for a game they do NOT want to get them back. My puppy was not neglected, but now she is probably going to die and that really hurts.
And what if your computer dies and you simply cannot find someone to care for your pet because you have no access to ask? Or how about areas that are struck with hurricanes or other disasters where there is no power for a while? These people will come back to find their pets taken from them, or worse, dead. Way to go, Hornbaker. Not only is it stressful enough to lose computer access, but when you can get back on line, your beloved pet will be gone. This new version just sucks all the way around.
Posted by: Kim Washburn | December 26, 2008 at 04:06 PM
I was so appalled by the change which was not announced in any way that I impulsively deleted the application. Unfortunately, since this is a virtual world, I lost my pup.
I have joined all of the anti foopets groups on facebook and posted a negative review for this application. I agree with the comments that precede mine, specifically the points that I do not need to be taught how to responsibly care for a pet as I have been doing so all of my life. I especially liked the ability to care for my friends pets when they were unable to. One friend has had back problems and was unalne to sit at his computer. He was very appreciative of my support for his pup. And another friend always asked me when she had to be out of town for work and did not have access. I don't need or want a virtual pet who will get sick because I am two hours late in logging on.
I am sure there is no way to retrieve my pet, and I do feel like I have lost a friend. Why could this change not have been a choice for users instead of being shoved down our throats on Christmas, of all times! Many users who are out of town for the holidays, dealing with reality, will be shocked when they come home to find this virtual mess.
Posted by: Amy Jane | December 26, 2008 at 04:17 PM
My pup is also one that was lost in the transition. I have contacted them twice now asking for help on getting him back and apparently has fallen on deaf ears, even an automated will be in touch would have been nice. Oh well, not sure I want to use the foopets anyway.
Posted by: maus | December 26, 2008 at 06:25 PM
Yup, I removed the application as well when I saw that my sweet puppy, Duffy, was replaced by a creepy FooPet. They ruined it. Never even gave us a chance to comment or be involved. Oh well, it's their loss. From what I hear, people are deleting the Pokey/FooPet application in droves.
Posted by: Jo | December 28, 2008 at 09:04 AM
This new puppy can die feature of Foopets is emotional mugging. Pokey was a beautiful, fanciful app and now it's been destroyed.
Posted by: Christina | January 05, 2009 at 06:51 PM
i hate this site.It is so boring dont come here.
Posted by: sarah smith | January 10, 2009 at 03:44 PM
I have two dogs I live in a apartment it is really crouded.I love this site! I love uggs to!
Posted by: sarah smith | January 10, 2009 at 03:47 PM
I would have never signed up for FooPets if I'd known I'd have to come back to the site EVERY DAY for the next 10 to 20 years in order to "properly care" for my FooPet. It can apparently be neglected and get sick! That's just disgusting. I feel so guilty, so I am forced to come back and play with it. They should offer a very serious warning to people before they sign up.
I have 2 real dogs and 2 real cats. I don't have time for this. I thought it was just a cute sort of game, or an online "clone" of my real pet for fun. But I can't delete it. I agree with Jo. The "puppy can die feature is emotional mugging." A real guilt trip.
I'm joining an Anti-FooPet Group on Facebook as soon as I can find one and I'm posting this story as well. And it will not be reflected in a good light.
Posted by: grace1129 | January 27, 2009 at 08:41 PM
I only discovered FooPets yesterday and already I'm regretting it.
I like the graphics of it but don't like that the only way you can earn money is to play the SINGLE game, buy money for REAL money or SIGN UP for offers you DON'T WANT.
The site is also running extremely slow. By that I mean that when I bring up my pup, the animation freezes, stutters, and is very slow to react to my mouseclicks.
There is apparently only ONE active member of staff on the boards.
I tried to post on the boards, but the button to actually post the reply doesn't work.
Reading peoples' feelings about the game, I'm wishing I hadn't bothered to sign up at all.
I think the money from the game has gotten to their heads.
Just like Horseland, another game I play, the game owners seem to have gotten too big for their boots and are disregarding the PLAYERS.
Posted by: Murdock | March 11, 2009 at 04:49 AM