Go where the Money is ...

"Go where the Money is ..." had always been a philosophy in my life. I won't argue or feel sad for what's lost or soon to be gone. But there were a time in my life I wasn't like this at all, I would hold on to my business and struggle really hard to save it from dying. Eventually no matter how hard you try to save it, you may still need to put up the RIP sign afterall.

Virtual Worlds is dying a slow death today, 3D worlds are the first to go as predicted by us. Can the kids world survive ? Or should we ask oursleves how many kids world can the market take ?

Key Questions during times like this in a company on what direction we should take should be - "You Go Where the Users are Heading OR Where they're already At". The answers today will be:

• iPhones Apps
• Flash Games / MMO
• Social Games

Always head to where users are gathering, don't fight the wave but ride with it !

Virtual Worlds are closing down

December 22nd 2009

Metaplace a virtual world by Raph Koster, shut down after two years of operation, founded in 2007. "Over the last several years, we here at Metaplace have been working very hard to create an open platform allowing anyone to come to a Web site and create a virtual world of their own," the company wrote in an email announcement. "Unfortunately, over the last few months it has become apparent that Metaplace as a consumer (user-generated content) service is not gaining enough traction to be a viable product, requiring a strategic shift for our company."

The company had raised over $9.4 million in venture capital financing, from backers including Charles River Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

March 4th, 2010

Makena to Close Down Online Virtual World There.com
Makena Technologies, the builder of virtual worlds and operator of online virtual world There.com, has announced plans to shutter the 12-year-old service on March 9, founded in 1998, There.com has to date raised some $35 million in venture capital financing. Makena CEO Michael Wilson said in a blog post that the company was hit by the recession, seeing revenues decrease. In addition to There.com, Makena has also created virtual worlds for MTV Networks.

While Second Life struggles along and Frenzoo is one of the several others worlds trying to make a new shift and change to survive ... And where would a host virtual worlds such Club Penguin, Webkinz, Habbo whom had amass a huge amount of venture money go next ? Habbo had make a shift and is concentrating its tech efforts in the new space - Social Networks such as Facebook.

2007 - 2010
Spring of 2007 when I was still working as a consultant at Sulake ( Habbo ), Second Life, There, Entropia and other 3D worlds were the super stars of the show Virtual Worlds Conference. Today the organizer had changed it's name to ENGAGE EXPO and those 3D worlds are all but forgotten. Both me and my partner had predicted this would happen in late 2007 when we started iLEMON specializing in 2D and 2.5D kids and teens white-label virtual worlds development ( *check-out my former blog - http://dragoncalvin.blogspot.com/ ).

Note of The Day

"Goes where the money is always ..."

China Millionaires

“The rise of China, if it continues, may be the most important trend in the world for the next century.” The latest Hurun Report on China has bombshell figures revealing the number of millionaires in Beijing. According to the report, (hold your breath) there are 143,000 multimillionaires and 8,800 billionaires in Beijing. Shanghai has 116,000 multimillionaires and 7,000 billionaires. Beijing’s elite not only spends at least 87 million yuan on property, cars and other luxury goods but have the taste for luxury brands like Cartier and Louis Vuitton. They own at least three dwellings of their own, including a villa, like the 400-sq-m Ziyu Shanzhuang villa costing 24 million yuan, a luxury apartment in the downtown area for work purposes, and a Siheyuan courtyard house probably in Houhai.

According to the Hurun 2009 Wealth Report released in April 2009, China has 825,000 individuals with personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan (GBP 1 million or USD 1.46 million) and 51,000 individuals with more than 100 million yuan. Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai are home to the lion’s share of the rich, accounting for 48% of millionaires in Mainland China. Beijing tops the list with 143,000 individuals with more than 10 million yuan and 8,800 individuals with more than 100 million yuan. Second is Guangdong Province with 137,000, followed by Shanghai with 116,000 and Zhejiang Province with 110,500 millionaires.

So where are you now on the list?