Virtual Goods, Real Money

A recent survey on digital goods spending has some interesting statistics, well worth a glance to get an idea of what's happening in the virtual marketplace. As you might expect, virtual sales continue to rise, and now 13% of people surveyed have purchased a virtual good in the last 12 months. The iPhone accounts for the biggest share of virtual good sales, with 43% of iPhone owners having purchased a virtual good. This is becoming a huge business; some estimates say it will be $10 billion globally this year. Interestingly, most of that is outside the USA; the domestic market is estimated to be at about $1.6 billion.

Just as interesting are the stats on where these purchases are made.

Type of game or environment where consumers have bought from:
1. A free, web-based game (37%)
2. A social network site, other than a game (31%)
3. A free multiplayer computer game (29%)
4. A game on a social network site (29%)
5. A connected console marketplace (21%)
6. A paid, subscription based multiplayer game (18%)
7. An online virtual world (11%)
8. Other (6%)

Looks like spending is spread over all sorts of places. The game market is evolving swiftly, which means marketing efforts have to race to keep up. It's especially difficult since many of these venues are new to players, and they might not even think to look there for products.