Asian social networking sites profit from virtual money
Reuters had a rather good article about Asian virtual platforms and how they are relatively successful at monetizing virtual services. There were several insights to how the Asian online sites have progressed differently from the Western ones, how they use the tech, revenue models, consumer/ demographics usage habits.
Eg.
- Asians spend abt $5bil buying virtual goods, 80% of which for online
gaming tools, the rest on avatar-related goods.
- QQTencent made abt $1bil last year, of which only 13% is fr online
advertising, the rest from user-based services. Contrast with FB & Google.
- Asian consumers value face. No one wants to be the only avatar without
the funkiest gear or accessories. 
