Virtual Worlds Are a $600 Million Business

There may be a recession going on in many areas around the globe, but that doesn’t mean that there isn't any money for investments. According to Virtual Worlds Management, in 2008 $594 million were invested in 63 virtual worlds, such as Gaia Online, PlayFish, Turbine and others.

Investments in virtual worlds are actually dropping quite rapidly. In the fourth quarter, $101 million was invested in 13 virtual world-related companies.  In the third quarter, this number was $148.5 million, in the second quarter it was $161 million and in the first quarter it was $184 million. Still, these monstrous investments show both how big the virtual world marketplace really is and the fact that there’s still plenty of venture capital money to go around.

Things might look bad for the economy, but when there are millions of dollars invested in virtual worlds each month, things maybe aren't as bad as they seem.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Virtual world third quarter investment tops $148.5 million
• Gaia Online Cuts 13% Of Staff Despite Claims Of Record Earnings
• Gaia Online scares me this Halloween
• IMVU to start selling music streams and downloads in its virtual chat rooms

Related Items:

Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds

Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It)

Did you enjoy this article? Be sure to subscribe to our news feed. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Related Posts:

• To Hell with Work, People are Now Playing Quake Live
• Bush Shoe Throwing Game Site Sells for $7,818
• Mahalo Answers: Answers with a Hula Skirt?
• Fast Domain Flipper Makes $35K on Bush Library URL
• Sniffing Some Glue? Yahoo Brings “Glue Pages” to U.S.