Zwinky - The Digitized

I previously wrote about Zwinky, a relatively new online game aimed at the young teen market. That was back when it first came out, when the obnoxious advertisements (with the nonetheless strangely infectious music and bizarrely cute characters) first started airing on television. Judging by all of the hits on my blog from people searching for Zwinky since then, it’s become very popular, so it’s worth a revisit.Your first question is probably going to be: What is Zwinky? That’s a fair question; the ads didn’t do a very good job of explaining it. Zwinky is a light online game, not unlike Neopets or RuneScape. But here’s the rub: to play Zwinky, you need to install a browser plugin called MyWebSearch. And that’s when the bad things start happening. The MyWebSearch plugin gets into everything: Internet Explorer, Outlook, Firefox, AOL Instant Messenger, and a whole host of other browsing, maill, and chatting programs.

Zwinky was designed primarily as delivery platform for advertisements and the MyWebSearch browser, which has been classified by some as malware (meaning it is detrimental software that you shouldn’t ever choose to install) and spyware (meaning it violates your privacy by reporting your surfing habits back to the company). It hijacks bad DNS requests (if you type in a domain name that doesn’t exist, it’ll take you to an ad-laden portal instead of the usual site not found message). It also gives you lots of ads. It’s not something you’d ever want, but if you want to play Zwinky, you have to install it.

So, is Zwinky worth it? All of the gameplay in Zwinky takes place in a persistent online world called “Zwinktopia”. That means that everything you do and collect in it stays the same across different play sessions (unlike, say, Tetris). The player has Zwinky avatars (also known as characters) that inhabit the virtual world. The player can play arcade games to earn “Zbucks”, which the player can then use to buy new clothing and upgrades for their character’s dorm room. If this kind of stuff appeals to you, you might enjoy playing Zwinky — which the huge caveat of the MyWebSearch toolbar it installs.

And Zwinky does seem to appeal to lots of people. According to recent statistics, Zwinky has more unique monthy visitors than its two nearest competitors, Gaia Online and Habbo hotel, combined. So even though it’s relatively new on the scene, it’s a huge success. Lots of young teens are playing it.

One more thing to consider about Zwinky: it is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, a company you might better know as the owners of Ask.com and Excite.com. So there is some serious muscle behind Zwinky. It’s not just the product of a one-hit wonder game company. So they are in a good position to leverage Zwinky’s popularity through the use of their toolbar. And thus, no matter how much I advocate against installing Zwinky due to its bad toolbar, there are still going to be many, many young teens out there eagerly signing up, most likely because their friends are playing as well. Ahh, there’s nothing quite like marketing to kids.

Original Post: http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2007/12/03/the-complete-lowdown-on-zwinky/ 

Zwinky has announced a partnership with Zazzle, a custom clothing and tchotchke company, to allow its users to export their Zwinky avatars to real-world gear. The in-world Zazzle kiosk users to buy customized t-shirts, mugs, posters, postage stamps, and more featuring their avatars, which can be created and shipped to the buyer within 24 hours. Users can select from a display of their avatar on various options and switch between previously created and saved avatar outfits.  Zazzle is also selling a line of merchandise featuring Zwinktopia and avatars of the company’s bloggers. “The success of Zwinky is largely attributed to the user’s ability to express themselves online,”  John Park, President of IAC Consumer Applications and Portals, the parent company of Zwinky, said in a statement. “Now we’re giving our users the ability to take their online persona into the real world.”

Original Post: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/zwinky-partners.html

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

IAC’s Zwinky has been carefully growing their pre-teen social networking service. It started out as an online avatar creation tool. They later created a virtual world where those avatars could socialize. Usage of the service has been growing, under heavy advertising, as well. They currently have over 9.5 million registered users with 4.6 million active users per month that spend an average of 64 minutes a day in their virtual world, Zwinktopia.Zwinky is now expanding the service to their users pocketbooks, or rather those of their parents. The site is now letting users purchase batches of “Zbucks”, their virtual curency, instead of having to earn them. They join a growing group of other tween sites with paid virtual economies as well (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Gaia). Users can purchase them using PayPal or credit card at a rate of about $10 for 2,000 Zbucks. With the Zbucks, users will be able to purchase their own avatar accessories or furnish their virtual rooms in Zwinktopia. Zwinky is not only making money from the Zbucks, but also through sponsorships and sales made through the virtual goods.

So far users have spent over 500 million free “Zbucks” on the site since launch. There’s no telling how strong the uptake of the new paid currency will be, but other services have shown a clear market for virtual goods. The passion around World of Warcraft drove a black market for virtual gold. SecondLife has also driven a paid virtual economy. While virtual goods seem hokey for outsiders, startups that create a meaningful environment find their customers willing to pay to save time earning currency or get at exclusive items.

Original Post: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/17/zwiky-cashes-in-on-virtual-ecomony/