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.

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Technorati Tags: Gaia Online, Gaming, Making Money, Tech News, Virtual Worlds

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