Casual game site Iminlikewithyou will soon start selling virtual goods, founder and CEO Charles Forman (pictured) tells Tech Confidential in our Behind the Money video interview.
Games on the mulitplayer site, such as Tracism (which is like an updated Pac-Man) and Blockles (like Tetris) will remain free, but players will be able to purchase on-screen items designed to enhance game performance or boost a player's social status within the online community.
Forman, 28, first learned about the idea of selling virtual goods a few years ago while living in South Korea. He was impressed by the popularity of Web sites developed by Nexon Corp., which makes multiplayer games, and Cyworld, which lets visitors decorate a virtual home. Since then, similar strategies have been used by North American companies, such as Club Penguin, bought by Disney last year for $350 million, Ganz Inc.'s Webkinz, and Dizzywood, a startup backed by Betaworks. PlaySpan Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that makes a platform for game makers to sell virtual goods, just announced a $16.8 million Series B.
Forman expects to open an online store for virtual goods on Iminlikewithyou in the first quarter of next year. But developing items that will give players a competitive advantage--but not too much of an advantage that might turn off players who don't choose to buy them--requires a delicate balancing act. Getting it right is the company's biggest challenge now, says Forman.
Forman conceived Iminlikewithyou as a dating and flirting site in the summer of 2006 at a session of Y Combinator's boot camp for entrepreneurs. While the original concept for the startup failed, the idea of creating a fun online place where young people would hang out after school or work has remained. Forman hopes virtual goods will enhance the social aspects of game playing. He envisions players giving each other digital gifts, a gesture he likens to buying friends a round of beers.
Forman has done an impressive job of attracing A-list backers to Iminlikewithyou. Y Combinator provided seed funding in 2006, and in 2007 he raised an angel round of "a couple hundred thousand dollars" from Betaworks and well-known angels Ron Conway (an early backer of Google Inc.), Kevin Rose (founder of Digg Inc., Revision3 and Pownce) and Paul Buchheit (creator of Google Inc.'s Gmail and co-founder of FriendFeed Inc.). Earlier this year, Iminlikewithyou raised a $1.5 million Series A led by Spark Capital and including Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape and Ning), Baseline Ventures, Betaworks and Conway. -- Mary Kathleen Flynn
