Mattel has revealed that its Barbie Girls virtual world has now signed up nearly 13 million registered users, which it claims makes it the fastest growing virtual world ever. Meanwhile, the company claims more than 85% of those users are older than eight years old, which it says plays into its strategy of keeping older girls "engaged with the core play experiences of the Barbie brand".
It’s unclear how these 13 million of users are translating into revenues, though. Partly because there’s presumably an indirect effect by which Barbie Girls users may buy more physical Barbie products, but also because Mattel has only just introduced its Barbie Girls VIP premium subscription, which costs $5.99 a month.
The big question is how many of those 13 million are active users, and then how many of them will upgrade to the premium subscription. If just 5% of the overall registered users upgrade, that translates to 650,000 paying subscribers, generating potential revenues of $46.7 million a year. Not bad business…
Check the whole Mattel conference call here, although much of it deals with the company’s physical business.
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