Virtual Worlds Management today released its updated Youth Worlds Analysis. Based on comprehensive research available through Virtual Worlds News, we've found that there are now over 200 youth-oriented virtual worlds live, planned, or in active development. Looking across the range of worlds available, the majority of virtual worlds monetize their user base with a combination of revenue streams, mixing subscriptions, advertising, and virtual goods sales. Out of those, microtransactions and subscriptions are the most popular, with 59 and 57 worlds using them respectively. Another 46 worlds include advertising in their mix. Additional details will be discussed at the Engage! Expo taking place March 10-11, 2009.
In August we noted roughly 150 worlds, though some of the increase isn't related to new companies, but just worlds that came to our attention. In addition to the previous data we've tracked--target demographics and development status--we've added new numbers looking at business models and countries of origin.
As could be expected, most microtansaction and advertising-based worlds target tweens and/or teens as their primary user base. With rising concerns for children's safety in advertising and the lack of credit card/payment options increasing the lower in age you go, the two models become harder to implement.
Accordingly, subscription, while popular across all demographics, picks up steam among the younger crowd. With many children's worlds emphasizing education offerings and parental zones as premium options, subscriptions are an easier sell for a monthly service.
In terms of overall users, we've broken the market down into worlds targeting kids (7 and under), tweens (8-12), an teens (13+). There's significant overlap between the demographics with kids and tweens looking aspirationally upwards and a surprising number of young adults and teens enjoying worlds aimed at younger audiences.
Even so, the kids market is the clear leader. 107 worlds are aiming for at least part of their main audience to fall in the under-7 range. Tweens lead the next bracket with 90 offerings, while teens are still a relative open space with only 78 worlds targeting them.
That's a significant change from our last look at the market in August, when tweens led the pack with 88 offerings followed by kids at 72. Teens were then, as now, confronted by the fewest options with 60 worlds.
While the younger market is harder to monetize and kids require simpler virtual worlds than older users, it seems like developers think there's a demand. To be fair, many of those worlds are right at the cutoff point, targeting users at 6 and 7 at their low end. However, there is an increase in worlds aiming to serve families from the time their children are 3 years old and on. That's particularly true with the increase in educational content, with simple virtual worlds and environments taking prominence on educational portals and among brands like Knowledge Adventure.
While virtual worlds are still a growth market with 81 worlds in various stages of development, the majority of these titles (112) are already live and in the market. 36 worlds, though, are in open beta and presumably close to launching, though another 41 are listed as in early stages of development.
With the economic pressures of next year and continuing decline in investment both overall and in the virtual worlds space, it's likely that not all of these projects will ever make it to market.
That's not to say that the industry or market will go away. Far from it: with this many worlds already in place and more on the way, 2009 seems almost inevitably a time of consolidation and downturn for the space.
The teen market, and of course that of adults, seems relatively wide open, though, and potentially even easier to monetize. So while the youth market has been the booming growth space of the industry so far, and likely will continue to be to some degree, we might soon be spending a bit more of our time tracking adult offerings as well.
I am curious about your definition of a virtual world. Reference is made to "Knowledge Adventure". Although this is a great website, I don't see how it is a virtual world. Perhaps an article about real virtual worlds for children would be of interest to the readers. www.cackleberries.com is launching their new site on July 5th...It is a wonderful living cartoon and worth watching.
Posted by: Eronne Ward | June 25, 2009 at 08:44 PM