By Ravit Lichtenberg (blog)
[OnHollywood] Avatar and alternate self solutions had a prominent presence at the OnHollywood conference here in West Hollywood:
Club Cooee (above) combines online and offline social experiences via 3D environment and characters. Club Cooee users can create their avatar and fully customized 3D rooms—fully furnished and accessorized—and keep them running on their desktops. Artifacts in the room can be linked to other websites users like, the environment can be integrated into other websites, and members can be invited to spend time in each others’ rooms for a real-time chat. Club Cooee dubs their solution “the next generation messaging and communication system, which adds visual, emotional, and personal experience The application is <3 MB in size which enables it to run seamlessly and stay “always on” on users’ desktop. Users meet, chat, flirt, share media files and make new friends from all over the world within 3D rich media chatrooms including video and pictures screens, music streams and direct links to websites. As you can imagine, opportunities for monetization are immense—from branded elements in rooms to micro-transactions on media content to user-generated-content.
BigStage’s mission is to help people create a Digital YOU. Still in early stage and continuously perfecting the technology, BigStage lets users upload their photos and enables them to create a 3D, full rotation, representation of themselves in media content such as in games, movies, commercials, etc. Users will also be able to use their 3D avatar on Skype and facebook. Unlike other avatar-based games and experiences, user “profiles” and history (where they used their avatar) are permanently retained on BigStage’s site. The offering goes beyond a consumer play: BigStage is already working with a number of large brands who use the BigStage technology to engage with users as part of brand and marketing campaigns. BigStage offers a Digital You to consumers for free; they make money on the B2B play.
IMVU lets users create their own avatars and use them in chat environments. Users can style their avatars from a catalog of goods; about 70% of goods are created by IMVU users and “inventory” grows daily. When asked about moving online UGC content offline, CEO Cary Rozensweig, says there are no plans at the moment to do so, although one can imagine this can be a strong monetization avenue—an Ebay of sort for online goods. This is where IMVU gets less like chat and campaign targeted solutions and more like 3D virtual world games (probably in the same quadrant or adjacent to SecondLife, Gaia, WebKinz, etc).
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