Imvu

IMVU operates an online virtual world and social networking platform in which members create and customize 3D avatars, chat, hang out in user-made rooms, play games and shop for virtual goods. The service is available on PC (desktop and a legacy "IMVU Classic" client), iOS and Android, and the company describes itself as a web3 social metaverse. The platform includes chat rooms, groups, discussions, a social feed, matchmaking features, a badge system, premium avatar names and a VIP subscription tier that removes advertising.

A central element of IMVU is its creator marketplace. Members design clothing, hair, skins, shoes, accessories, furniture, rooms, avatars and stickers, which are sold to other users for the platform's proprietary credits currency. Credits can be bought with real money or earned through in-platform activities such as watching videos, surveys and offers, and creators can convert earnings into real-world value through a reseller program. In March 2020 IMVU launched Live Rooms, allowing users to host live events such as fashion shows, lectures, talk shows and virtual weddings with audience interaction and tipping.

In January 2021 the company announced a restructuring under a new parent organization, Together Labs, which oversees the flagship IMVU platform, the VCOIN digital currency and other virtual services, including a then-planned platform called WithMe. VCOIN is a blockchain-based currency that users can buy, gift, earn and convert into fiat; it received a no-action letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is supported by a partnership with digital finance platform Uphold.

Founding story

IMVU was founded in 2004 by Will Harvey and Eric Ries. The founders initially set out to build a social network layered on top of existing instant messaging networks rather than creating a competing IM network of their own, building a 3D avatar and virtual goods experience that connected to more than a dozen IM services. After six months of prototype development the launch attracted almost no users, prompting the team to interview prospective customers and iterate on the product. The experience of developing IMVU through rapid iteration, continuous customer feedback, agile development and commoditized open-source technology informed the lean startup methodology later popularized by co-founder Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup.

Business model

IMVU is free to join and monetizes through the sale of credits, its proprietary in-platform currency, which members use to buy user-created virtual goods. Additional revenue lines include a VIP subscription program, premium avatar name registration, gift cards, advertising shown to non-VIP users, and offer/survey walls through which users can earn credits.

Revenue derives from purchases of virtual currency (credits) used to buy virtual items, subscription upgrades (VIP), premium name and avatar upgrades, gift cards, and advertising. Creators who sell items on the platform earn credits that can be converted into real-world money through the reseller program, and the company reported roughly $50 million in annual revenue in 2011.

Traction

The company reports millions of monthly visitors spending an average of 55 minutes per day on the platform, and states that more than 200,000 people earn money selling items on IMVU. In 2020 it reported over 7 million monthly active users and 400,000 products created per month by users, with a footprint in more than 140 countries. Earlier figures include approximately six million active players in 2014, a catalog of more than 6 million virtual items as of 2011, and about $50 million in annual revenue in 2011.

Latest developments

The January 2021 strategic round of $35 million included NetEase and Structural Capital and was earmarked for product development following the creation of the Together Labs parent company, which oversees IMVU, VCOIN and the WithMe platform under development. In 2021 IMVU partnered with Uphold to let users convert VCOIN into real-world money, and in 2022 it partnered with Spectrum Labs on AI-based detection of healthy online behavior. The desktop and Classic clients continue to receive maintenance releases addressing stability, networking and creator tooling.