At SXSW, Susan Choe of Outspark stated (and was promptly tweeted as having said) that Outspark manages to get $60 ARPU, which is quite a respectable figure.
The challenge there, of course, is that you have to know on what basis this is being measured. I immediately asked “was that ARPU or ARPPU?”
Virtual Worlds News has published their “Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2009”.
Among questions answered of the dozens of CEOs and senior execs interviewed are things like “What are trends for the next year?” and “What is your company’s goal for 2009?” Lots of mentions of the economy. My favorite answer comes from Sean Ryan of Meez:
Get profitable while Armageddon rolls over the industry.
Virtual Worlds News: China Levies 20% Tax on Virtual Currencies.
This is completely unsurprising — after all, levying tax on earnings made via selling virtual goods is something that the US does already (if you make money, they expect a cut, no matter where how how you made it) and it’s a lot more common in China than here. But there’s a wrinkle:
The ruling applies to QQ coins and the like as well as gameworld currencies, and based on the WSJ report, seems to apply whether or not the value is cashed out.
The announcement, which was distributed to local tax bureaus, specifically takes aim at those who buy virtual currency from gamers and surfers and sell it to others at a mark-up. Taxation officials are granted the right to determine the original price of online virtual currency if the individual fails to provide proof of an original price, it says.
Interestingly, companies seem to be exempt from taxes like these right now, presumably because the government there did so in order to incentivize economic growth in the sector.
However, if the value is not cashed out and taxes are still paid, that could mean (maybe should mean) that the companies are liable if they manage to accidentally delete some of it. In other words, they’re banks.
It’s starting to happen, after there being years of rumors and little concrete evidence. And where it happens on large scales, regulation cannot be far behind.
Last week Korean police arrested a group responsible for laundering money generated by Chinese gold farming from Korea back to the mainland. Over 18 months, the group wired $38 million from Korea to a Hong Kong paper company as payments for purchases.
— Virtual Worlds News: Group Laundered $38M in Virtual Currencies in 18 Months.
To repeat one of my favorite quotes, heard at a conference years ago, “well, that’s not drug kinds of money, but it’s certainly terrorist kinds of money.”
I had the distinct pleasure of attending the recent Virtual Worlds London show as the guest of Chris, Joey et al at Virtual Worlds Management this week. To say it was a mixed bag would be an understatement. The media, kids and games sessions where alive and vibrant, and absolutely full of excitement The enterprise sessions were lackluster, stale and unconvincing.
–Stagnation in the enterprise virtual worlds space | Clever Zebra
