What do people think about paying for virtual gifts / goods?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=562095

by ChristianPerry • 17 years ago

9 14 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have never bought a virtual gift as I understand the definition. They're silly. That may change as the interestingness and utility of these social tokens evolves. Today they seem very...Elementary School. Back then if your dream girl gave you a Crackerjax prize you treasured it. I'm not saying they aren't a good business but today I put them in the same stupidity category as gift cards.

ChristianPerry2• 17 years ago

Silly as they may seem, gift cards are a $46.9 billion industry: http://blogs.creditcards.com/2008/04/fed-study-deflates-size...

Now you've just given me a business idea: a gift card that works across different virtual worlds.

systemtrigger2• 17 years ago

Well yes obviously they're a profitable industry, I don't deny that. I'd be the first to hunt down numbers to back up what you say, I was in the card industry myself for awhile. But I wasn't answering the question of 'are they a good business' I was answering the question 'would I pay for today's virtual gifts' which I understood to be your submitted topic. And I was being honest: in my experience virtual gifts have never appealed to me as a consumer. I likened them to gift cards because gift cards provide no added utility while reducing liquidity - they're a huge consumer sham. But as to whether these items are profitable, absolutely - they're spectacularly profitable!

cte• 17 years ago

According to http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/facebook-selling-digita... facebook is selling digital gifts at a $35m run rate. A friend at fb tells me this number is significantly inflated though.

ChristianPerry2• 17 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised. I saw James Hong from HotORNot talk about virtual gifts a while ago. You know what one of the biggest sources of revenue on their site was? Flowers.

You could send three different kinds of flowers to someone -- a cheap one ($1), a medium priced one ($3), or an expensive one ($10. Yes, $10 for a stupid little flower icon.)

People bought flowers by the hundreds of thousands; they became one of the biggest drivers of site revenue. Moreover, and this is interesting, James said that when someone sent a flower to a person, they were considerably more likely to get a response when sending a message.

staunch• 17 years ago

The guy that sells the virtual flowers says that buying them will get you laid? Shocking!

dkokelley• 17 years ago

I've never made a virtual purchase, but I found a rare object in a video game once and gave it to my brother as a birthday gift. I think he appreciated it more than any physical good I could have given him.

ajdecon• 17 years ago

I've paid real money for some virtual good in a game, where the good had some active "function", but I've never bought something like a facebook gift which simply sits on your profile. I do wonder if there might be some market for "active" social networking goods: for-pay applications, or integration of a low-price digital music store, etc.

ieatpaste• 17 years ago

This works well in Asian markets due to emerging markets and Asian culture. While it is more understated in Western culture, Asian culture is all about progress, and monetary progress is reflected by conspicuous consumption. Therefore, virtual gifts/goods is a display of that same progress. Furthermore, Asians are educated through a largely abstract approach, which allows them to understand the worth of virtual items without tangible interaction. From a Web 2.0 perspective, Asian web clones have made more money than its Western counterparts due to virtual gifts.

Personally, I don't think monetization through virtual goods is going to work for Western markets unless its a very specified niche market which relies on virtual goods already (i.e. gaming). There isn't enough social/cultural value in virtual goods that justifies the price (even if it is just a few dollars).

mustpax• 17 years ago

I'm not saying you're wrong, but can you provide some supporting material when making such broad generalizations about cultures? Are there any sociological studies that back up these findings? Are you talking about any particular region of Asia where this might be particularly true?

Asia is home to a great diversity of cultures and languages, a little more discretion would be appropriate when talking about it in such definite terms.

teej• 17 years ago

What do I think? I'm not sure what the question is.

Do I think it's a good business model for certain games and game-like interactions? Absolutely.

Do I think it's silly to pay money for virtual goods? Absolutely not. You pay for hapiness plenty of other ways, who cares what the vehicle of that emotion is?

Have I ever purchased virtual goods? Yes. Over $2,000 across 8 games.

blader• 17 years ago

Why not?

Whether they know it or not, most people already buy virtual goods.

Every time you buy $150 sneakers, you're buying $120 worth of virtual goods.

Bottle service at a club. $450 worth of virtual goods, $50 worth of alcohol.

An engagement ring. $10,000 worth of virtual goods. $1,000 worth of diamond.

A tier 7 rainment in WoW. $99.999 worth of virtual goods, $0.001 worth of goods.

Etc.

fatbat• 17 years ago

I think this trend will pick up over time. The idea of a virtual gift is a status symbol almost. It is very similar to someone buying a Jean Paul Gaultier belt vs a regular leather belt. Both hold your pants up but the value comes in appearance/brand/perception of success.

With the focus now advancing in social media and virtual worlds, I am sure a large portion of users are willing to pay to "look good" or for a show of status.

ZeroGravitas• 17 years ago

One similar thing I've never understood is card games like Magic the Gathering and (perhaps?) Pokemon.

From what I gather this is kind of like playing poker, except you can just go out and buy more decks to stack your hand. Just doesn't seem fair or fun to me.

A similar partly-virtual good I can't wrap my head round is intentionally limited-edition goods such as beanie babies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Baby

What do people think about paying for virtual gifts / goods?

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