The digital world often looks to Asia for trend and growth prediction and the developments in social media are no exception. Because of local restrictions by governments on sites like Facebook, local social networks have sprung up and are big business.
According to a video created by Thomas Crampton of Ogilvy, which you can watch below, Facebook generated only $5M in virtual goods revenue (mainly from social games) compared to $87M by Chinese firm QQ, $100M by Mixi in Japan and $200M by Cyworld in South Korea.
Anyone in the social games industry already knows the potential for virtual goods revenue over the next few years, which is why Disney recently snapped up Playdom for $763M.
The question is whether the trends we are seeing in Asia with respect to buying virtual goods online, will hold true for Westerners.


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