Claiming to be the most active online chat portal for teens, Gaia Online landed $11 million in a third round from Institutional Venture Partners, to take advantage of a company prediction that teen use of online virtual worlds will jump from 8.2 million users in 2007 to 20 million in 2011. IVP joins previous investors Benchmark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Time Warner Inc.
Gaia will use the new capital to expand its five-year-old online community offerings, which currently allow a user base of more than 5 million unique users to socialize, play games, watch movies and create customized avatars and profiles.
The company's claim for primacy as the most active teen site is based on a rating by the research group Hitwise, which rated Gaia Online as having the highest average visit time among social networking Web sites. - Clifford Carlsen
See July 14 press release from Gaia Online
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