GigaOm has an article about online gold, a virtual world and online hangout inhabited by teens. already has considerable traffic with 300,000 users logging in each day.
The largest cohort of activity (wholly 30%) takes place in the forums, and here’s where the truly staggering numbers come in: Averaging a million posts a day and a billion posts of isk so far, ’s message boards (with topics running the gamut from pop culture to politics) is second only to Yahoo in popularity.
A million posts a day is very impressive. MySpace has matured so the fickle teens have to go somewhere and it sounds like is one of their destinations. GigaOm’s post also has an interview with Online CEO Craig Sherman who seems to be billing as an escape for those fleeing MySpace and other social networks.
Craig Sherman has been thinking what the value-proposition of his site in the era of MySpace or Facebook. “In a world where teens are constantly branding and packaging themselves” on sites like those, he points out, “ is where you get away from it all.”
, which offers the virtual world, forums, content rating and flash games, also has a way of making money that is not from advertising. They sell virtual fashion accessories and other “rare items.”
Instead of monthly subscriptions, Online sells “rare items” - treasures, fantastically cool fashion accessories for player avatars, and so on - two offered a month for $2.50 each. Subscribers buy them via credit card, Pay Pal, cellphone - or cash on the barrel. (”We employ someone full time whose job is getting dollars and quarters” out of envelopes kids send them, Sherman notes.)