Most people who log into IMVU are teenage girls. The reason is obvious. The avatars look like stylized dolls. You can dress them up. You can change their hair. It feels like digital Barbies. The 3-D environments are pretty, too. They encourage a kind of imaginative play that hits a specific nerve for young users.
But there is money in this, too. Artists love the creator program. You can design clothes or furniture. Then you sell it. You keep the intellectual property rights. You earn credits for the sales. Those credits help cover the cost of playing. It is not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. But it does offset the expense.
The market for virtual worlds is crowded, though. IMVU is not the only player.
How IMVU Compares to Other Virtual Worlds
People often compare IMVU to Second Life. The comparison is lazy. The two platforms are nearly opposites in practice. Second Life launched in 2003. It targets adults. It is not Web-based. You download a client. It is deeply immersive. The customization goes way beyond outfits. You can buy land. You can build houses. You can design vehicles. The avatars look more realistic. IMVU is simpler. It runs in a browser. The aesthetic is cuter.
A closer competitor is Habbo. It launched in 2001. It is a Web-based virtual hotel. The target audience is teenagers. Like IMVU, you chat and play games. You customize your avatar. You hang out in public or private rooms. The rooms can be decorated, too.
Habbo has a different vibe. The avatars are blocky and cartoonish. It has a strict filter. It blocks profanity. It blocks sexual references. It blocks personal data like phone numbers or emails. There is less creative freedom. You cannot design items to sell. There is no creator program. You can join clubs. You can make individual web pages. But the scope is narrower.
Then there is Rocket On. It entered public beta in February 2008. It calls itself a “parallel virtual world.” It is not a standalone destination. It is a plug-in. It is Flash-based. Merchants embed a specific line of code into their website headers. If you are logged into Rocket On, your avatar appears on those sites. You walk around. You chat. You can even buy virtual items specific to that merchant. It tries to merge social networking with browsing. It shares DNA with IMVU. It is also quite different.
Why Graphical Chat Matters
Will graphical instant messaging clients eventually replace text-based ones? Hard to say. Text is fast. It is low bandwidth. It gets the job done. Graphical clients offer presence. They offer identity. They offer a visual layer to conversation. The earnings potential in these spaces is huge. Investors notice that. IMVU raised $10 million in January 2009. More competitors will likely appear. The landscape is shifting.
Safety Risks in Virtual Environments
IMVU attracts teens. But adults use it too. The site sells “AP” (Adults Only) and mature items. Internet watchdogs have warned about this for years. Some items are designed for a general audience but look sexually suggestive. Content creators must rate these items as AP only. Some violate the policy. They slip inappropriate content through.
The animated interactions can be misleading. They feel gamelike. Young teens might feel a false sense of security. The environment feels safe. It is not always. There is nothing stopping an adult from posing as a minor. They can create a fake profile. They can interact with real kids.
This is not hypothetical. In February 2007, a district attorney investigator in Denver posed as a 13-year-old girl on IMVU. He went through the motions. He chatted. He arranged a meet-up. He arrested an adult who agreed to the face-to-face meeting. The danger is real. The risk is present.
IMVU provides safety tips. They list basic rules for online interaction. They offer specific information for parents. The advice is standard. It is also necessary. Parents need to familiarize themselves with the platform. They need to discuss it with their kids. The responsibility falls on the guardians. The digital world does not police itself.
