Avatars…Next Big Thing

Mark Archer’s Avatars

With over 60 million users logging onto Facebook and social networking popping up all over the internet, avatars will become as common as the business card is to business professionals.

What are Avatars?

Avatars are icons or representations of users in a shared virtual reality. Within online virtual communities and Internet forums, avatars give users a unique representation with a degree of anonymity.

Gaining popularity with gamers and teens worldwide, avatars will become big business as more people see the social networking sites not as teenage dating hangouts, but efficient markets to sell and market their products and services.

Today, custom avatars can be purchased for $15 to $100. Consider the millions that will be participating in live chats, online communities like Second Life, Facebook and Myspace, email signatures, and blogs. Look all around at the social networking sites and you can quickly see the potential of this emerging market. Much like a business card represents a business professional, an avatar will represent the individualistic character millions that simply want to

Business professionals carry business cards to identify their business and contact information, avatars will become the online business card, branding the company, individual, or business, whilst, providing the necessary information like online usernames or chatnames.

Tad Dagan, associate vice president at Comverse, Inc. a Massachussets-based Avatar company said, " These avatars are becoming big business because they are very important to people-especially young people, who are online so much of the time. They want to represent themselves to their friends and people them meet online in a certain way. They want to be seen as cool and unique."

Dagan said "Teenagers want to be thought of as unique and creative, so these (customizable) avatars are attractive for them," Dagan said. "That's also why ring tones have become such big business."

Talking Avatars
Talking avatars continue to gain popularity in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets and Oddcast, the leader in talking avatar technology, has been capitalizing on the growing trend of online self-expression since 1999. With over 5,500 business customers and millions of consumers using its products, the company is expanding its operations to the consumer and mobile marketplaces.

In early 2006, Union Square Ventures, a New York based venture capital firm led Oddcast's $4 million equity fundraising round. "Oddcast pioneered many of the most creative uses of avatars on the web. They are innovators in viral marketing for major brand advertisers including ESPN, Bratz, and the recently successful Monk-e-Mail Career Builder campaign. We would not be surprised if one day soon, young people put the same energy into their avatars that they put into their social network profiles. We are thrilled to be working with the Oddcast team to make that possible," said Brad Burnham, Managing Director of Union Square Ventures.

"Online communication through talking avatars is growing into a broad phenomenon. Millions of consumers are using Oddcast products every month and hundreds of millions viewing the talking characters," Said Adi Sideman, Founder and CEO of Oddcast. "With a clear understanding of the consumer web services space, Union Square Ventures and ITOCHU are two ideal partners for us, in this exciting stage of our growth."

Oddcast provides talking avatar products to leading consumer brands as well as small to mid-sized companies and consumers. Increasingly, avatars are being used by corporations as virtual salespeople, marketers, instructors, in talking ad units and by consumers for messaging and self-expression. To learn more about Oddcast's talking avatar products log on to www.oddcast.com.

Catch the Wave.
So, how does an entrepreneur capture a piece of this gigantic pie?  While it may be several years, before this emerging market gains traction, we recommend that you ride this wave and invest with a private or public reputable company that offers affordable, quality, custom avatars to the masses.

Start a Joint Venture with a small to medium graphic artist company and strike a deal to market for them.
Develop emerging technology that will augment the growing avatar industry. Ideas such as talking and animated avatars are still in its infancy.