Abstract
The global market for virtual items, characters and currencies was estimated to exceed 2.1 Billion USD in 2007. Selling virtual goods for real money is an increasingly common revenue model not only for online games and virtual worlds, but for social networking sites and other mainstream online services as well. What drives consumer spending on virtual items is an increasingly relevant question, but little research has been devoted to the topic so far. Previous literature suggests that demand for virtual items is based on the items’ ability to confer gameplay advantages on one hand, and on the items’ decorative value on the other hand. In this paper, I adopt a perspective from the sociology of consumption and analyse examples from 14 virtual asset platforms to suggest a more detailed set of item attributes that drive virtual item purchase decisions, consisting of functional, hedonic and social attributes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baudrillard, J. (1994). The system of collecting. In J. Elsner & R. Cardinal (Eds.), Cultures of collecting (pp. 7–24). London: Reaktion.
Belk, R. W. (1995). Collecting in a consumer society. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. The social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge.
Campbell, C. (1987). The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Campbell, C. (2004). I shop therefore I know that I am: the metaphysical basis of modern consumerism. In K. M. Ekström & H. Brembeck (Eds.), Elusive consumption (pp. 27–43). Oxford: Berg.
Castronova, E. (2003). On virtual economies. Game Studies 3(2). http://gamestudies.org/0302/castronova/. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Crawford, G. (2006). The cult of champ man: the culture and pleasures of championship manager/football manager gamers. Information, Communication & Society, 9(4), 496–514.
Douglas, M., & Isherwood, B. (1978). The world of goods. New York: Basic Books.
Fairfield, J. (2005). Virtual property. Boston University Law Review, 85(4), 1047–1102.
Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer culture & postmodernism. London: Sage.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245.
Guo, Y., & Barnes, S. (2007). Why people buy virtual items in virtual worlds with real money. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 38(4), 69–76.
Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (2005). A conceptual framework for considering web-based business models and potential revenue streams. International Journal of Marketing Education, 1(1), 7–34.
Jeffrey, S. A., & Hodge, R. (2007). Factors influencing impulse buying during an online purchase. Electronic Commerce Research, 7(3-4), 367–379.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2006). Marketing management (12th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Lastowka, F. G., & Hunter, D. (2004). The laws of the virtual worlds. California Law Review, 92(1), 1–73.
Lee, P.-M. (2002). Behavioral model of online purchasers in e-commerce environment. Electronic Commerce Research, 2(1–2), 75–85.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2008). Real-money trade of virtual assets: new strategies for virtual world operators. In M. Ipe (Ed.), Virtual worlds (pp. 113–137). Hyderabad: Icfai University Press.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2005). Real-money trade of virtual assets: ten different user perceptions. In Proceedings of digital arts and culture (DAC 2005) (pp. 52–58), IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 1–3 December 2005.
Lehtiniemi, T., & Lehdonvirta, V. (2007). How big is the RMT market anyway? Virtual Economy Research Network, 3 March. http://virtual-economy.org/blog/how_big_is_the_rmt_market_anyw. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Ling, M. C.-H., & Lawler, K. (2001). Internet advertising, game theory and consumer welfare. Electronic Commerce Research, 1(1–2), 169–181.
M&M (2007). Aapelilta artistipaidat. Markkinointi&Mainonta, 13 October. http://www.marmai.fi/doc.te?f_id=1261930. Accessed 19 October 2008.
McCracken, G. (1988). Culture and consumption: new approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Miller, D. (1987). Material culture and mass consumption. Oxford: Blackwell.
Nojima, M. (2007). Pricing models and motivations for MMO play. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2007. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40164.pdf. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Oh, G., & Ryu, T. (2007). Game design on item-selling based payment model in korean online games. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2007. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07312.20080.pdf. Accessed 19 October 2008.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2007). IAB internet advertising revenue report 2006. http://www.iab.net/media/file/resources_adrevenue_pdf_IAB_PwC_2006_Final.pdf. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Quart, A. (2003). Branded. The buying and selling of teenagers. Cambridge: Perseus.
Repères Second Life. (2007). Main research findings: purchase habits in second life. http://www.reperes-secondlife.com/image/Reperes_Main_research_findings_purchase_habits_in_SL.pdf. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Schonfeld, E. (2006). Cyworld attacks! Business 2.0, 2 October. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/08/01/8382263/index.htm. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Simmel, G. (1904/1957). Fashion. American Journal of Sociology, 62(6), 541–548.
Veblen, T. (1899/1955). The theory of the leisure class. New York: Mentor Books.
Virtual economy research network bibliography. http://virtual-economy.org/bibliography. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Yee, N. (2005). Motivations of play in MMORPGs. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06276.26370.pdf. Accessed 19 October 2008.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lehdonvirta, V. Virtual item sales as a revenue model: identifying attributes that drive purchase decisions. Electron Commer Res 9, 97–113 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-009-9028-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-009-9028-2