IAC/InteractiveCorp may have disappointed Wall Street with its second quarter results yesterday but the IAC Q2 2007 Earnings Call was revealing in that the company’s Virtual Worlds business was thriving. It’s Zwinky.com now has more than 8 million registered users who an average user session of 64 minutes and who have generated more than 15 million transactions using Zwinky virtual currency inside the virtual world of Zwinktopia. Zwinky is a $100 million a year business due to how it forces users to download a browser toolbar for Ask.com. And that is ad revenue only - not ecommerce or virtual item revenue.
From the Earnings Call:
* Zwinky.com now has over eight million registered users, spending on average 64 minutes on the site each session.
* The recent April launch of the Zwinky Virtual World, Zwinktopia, has led to over 15 million transactions using the Zwinky virtual currency called Z-Bucks. In addition to monetizing through search, there are clearly e-commerce opportunities with Zwinky, as well.
From the NY Times:
The catch is to use any of Zwinky.com services, you have to download a toolbar that will install in your Web browser that prominently features a box for searches (by, of course, Ask). The advertising revenue from these searches has become a $100 million a year business, said the chief executive of IAC’s consumer applications and portals division, which includes FunWebProducts.
Original Post: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/08/iacs-zwinkycom-.html
