Virtual goods

Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies.[1] Virtual goods are intangible by definition.[2]

Including digital gifts[3] and digital clothing for avatars,[4] virtual goods may be classified as services instead of goods[2] and are usually sold by companies that operate social networking services, community sites, or online games.[2] Sales of virtual goods are sometimes referred to as microtransactions,[5] and the games that use this model are usually referred to as freemium games.

  1. ^ Amazon may benefit as digital goods sales jump reuters.com, Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:32am EST
  2. ^ a b c Virtual Goods: the next big business model techcrunch.com, Jun 20, 2007
  3. ^ Sales of virtual goods boom in US news.bbc.co.uk, 10:32 GMT, Thursday, 22 October 2009
  4. ^ "Lucrative Alternatives to Online Advertising businessweek.com, October 23, 2008, 5:00PM EST". Businessweek.com. 2008-10-22. Archived from the original on October 27, 2008. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference wiredwow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).