PlaySpan Reels in $16.8 M
ADOTAS – Virtual goods and gaming shop PlaySpan has announced a $16.8 million Series B round of financing from investors including Eastern Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures and STIC. PlaySpan said it will use the funding to become the “eBay of virtual goods.”
Virtual goods enhance online games and virtual worlds, and can be anything from new costumes to weapons, potions or currency that players use to obtain higher status and levels. Unlike online transactions of the past, microtransactions need to be facilitated without credit card minimums and purchases can be for as little as a few cents, but those pennies add up. According to Susan Wu at Charles River Ventures, virtual goods represent a $1.5B global annual market.
The Chinese government aims to tax revenue from the virtual goods world, but PlaySpan hopes to sidestep that move by creating an online storefront buying publisher-sanctioned goods leveraging the same marketplace platform available directly for use in-game by top publishers and online communities. PlaySpan already powers commerce fro more than 200 online games and virtual worlds and millions of micro-transactions per year.
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