Social networks
Weblo wants to sell you the world
(Note: This is a piece I just posted at globeandmail.com, based on an interview with Weblo founder and CEO Rocky Mirza):
As the founder of a UK-based online-gaming property called IBetX.com and an Ottawa-based auction site called UniqueAuction.com, entrepreneur Rocky Mirza knows a little about what people like to do with their money online, and he is hoping that they will want to spend some of it buying and selling virtual properties as part of his newest venture, an online “virtual world” called Weblo.com. Mr. Mirza has managed to get some high-powered backing for this latest project (which launches on September 26): a major shareholder is none other than Richard Rosenblatt, whose most recent company — a little thing called MySpace.com — was bought by News Corp. last year.
Weblo has a long way to go before it is as massive as MySpace, of course, but Mr. Mirza says he believes it has the same kind of appeal as a social-networking site, with one added element: money. And not the kind of virtual money that players use in a virtual world such as Second Life or World of Warcraft, but real dollars. In a recent interview, Mr. Mirza said Weblo is a little like the game of Monopoly, but “without the board and with real money.” Players buy the right to “own” real-world properties such as the Taj Mahal, and then make money by either renting out space to other players, or from advertising that runs on their part of the site. They can also make money by selling their properties to others (Weblo takes a cut of each transaction).
There’s more to it than just that, however. Mr. Mirza says Weblo also has a kind of “Internet within an Internet” that is part of Weblo, and players can bid on and own domain names as well — such as PR.com or money.com — and choose where they are redirected to in the real world. In that way, a company’s Weblo property could direct players to its real-world Web site. Although Weblo originally planned to sell players the right to any domain name that existed in the real world, Mr. Mirza said that trademark issues got in the way and so no one will be allowed to own the Weblo version of Google.com or Microsoft.com. The company also planned to let people buy and sell celebrities such as Paris Hilton, but now they are only allowed to own (and buy or sell) the right to maintain a Weblo site devoted to that celebrity (which could also include advertising and other e-commerce tools).
Sound a little confusing? There’s more. Players will also be able to buy and sell cities such as Toronto or New York, and even to run for “mayor” of those cities, which will allow them to collect taxes from anyone whose property is part of that city (taxes that are split with Weblo). And in order to buy or sell a city, you have to be a citizen of whatever virtual country that city belongs to, which means buying citizenship from Weblo — which only costs a few dollars, unless you need it immediately (in order to sell London to another player, for example) in which case you can pay more for emergency citizenship.
“It’s a second chance at life,” says Mr. Mirza, who is originally from Ottawa. “Everything that exists in the real world exists in Weblo, so you could buy Toronto and become mayor of Toronto. It’s like Monopoly on steroids.” Weblo, which Mr. Mirza says he has been thinking about and working on for nine years, launches on Sept. 26 and a basic membership — which comes with a free celebrity of your choice — is free. Paying players get a larger share of the revenue their virtual properties generate.
Discussion
7 comments for “Weblo wants to sell you the world”
Post a comment
license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
subscribe
grazr
TwitterCount
busted tees
[...] Weblo: what-tha? virtual world + real money = ??? [...]
That name (Weblo) reminds me of a restaurant in downtown Houston called Fu Kim.
I thought the same thing, Kent — I wonder if they will have to constantly remind people that it’s pronounced “Web-lo” and not “We-blow.”
[...] search by your favourite tags Linkinfo: http://myspace.com/ the buzz flickr wall tag cloud wikirefs about submit NOT beta! myspace.com mathewingram.com/work, 7 hours agoWeblo wants to sell you the world — "(Note: This is a piece I just posted at globeandmail.com, based on an interview with Weblo founder and CEO Rocky Mirza): As the founder of a UK-based online-gaming property called IBetX.com and an Ottawa-based auction site called UniqueAuction.com, entrepreneur Rocky Mirza knows a little about what people like to do with their money online, and he [...] "Business Logs, 11 hours agoWhy Some Startups Stumble And Others Succeed: User Generated Quid Pro Quo — "The harsh truth that tech and “Web 2.0″ industry pundits don’t like to talk about is that the vast majority of these new “Web 2.0″ companies are failing. New companies are starting, mashing up, trying to innovate, but none are close to approaching the success of MySpace, Digg and [...] "MobileCrunch, 4 days agoMobileCrunch Presents Carnival of the Mobilists #45 — "It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to present the Carnival of the Mobilists. In fact, this will be the first time that I’ve done so over heree at MobileCrunch."Susan Mernit’s Blog, 4 days agoDogster gets funding–why? — "Ted Rheingold’s labor of social network love, dogster, round of angels investors including Michael Parekh, Joshua Schachter, Adam Beguelin, Michael Tanne, Jim Young, Mike Jones, George Sarlo, Frank Caufield, Aydin Senkut, Robert Simon, Brad Feld, and Jeff Clavier. One might ask why, but the answers make a lot of sense:1) What are the connector tools for people who don’t want to use myspace and whose interest isn’t job-related–and who don’t blog?2) How does someone more mainstream figure out how to navigate all these big, ill-defined social networking sites–in other words, how does Joe Average over 35 make sense of Yahoo [...]"The PC Doctor, 6 days agoWeekend fun - 25 worst web sites — "PC World has compiled a list of the 25 dumbest dot-coms and worst websites . MySpace might have come in at #1 but some of the others are pretty awful too."Somewhat Frank, a week agoMySpace is the “______ of ______” — "Fred Wilson, technology VC, recently compared MySpace today to AOL of the 1990’s by saying:I’ve said several times in this blog that MySpace is the AOL of blogging. I see blogging as the most open form of social media so…"The Shifted Librarian, a week agoRational US News Article on MySpace — "I was hesitant to buy the latest issue of U.S. News World Report because the cover story is about What Parents Need to Know about MySpace: Your Guide to a Kid’s World on the Internet, but in the end I figured it would be good fodder for a blog [...] "Raganwald, a week agoThe Revolution will not be on YouTube — "You will not be able to stay home, hacker. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out."Valleywag, a week agoMySpace: The Business of Spam 2.0 (Exhaustive Edition) - Valleywag — ""the laurence timms state machine, a week agoThe Internet and the Web 2006 to 2016 — "This is a short bullet point summary that I rapidly put together today for the company I work for. In it I have attempted to chart the future of the internet in terms of its ubiquity, how it is used, who uses it and what they expect of it."Biz Stone, Genius, a week agoMeme Time - URL Alphabet — "I don’t usually catch these blog meme bugs but this one is kinda neat. You go to your browser’s URL field and see which address auto-completes for each of the letters of the alphabet."Webfeed Central, a week agoMy Social Network — "Did you receive an invitation to Yahoo Mesenger from me? Here’s why. Sorry."homeaboutsubmit© 2006 chuquet - all rights reservedvar site=’s20chuquet’ 0,718 [...]
So far so good at Weblo. Thanks Matthew. This article encouraged me to check it out. I did, and registered, and am having a great time so far.
The first day had its share of glitches. Touch and go for a little while. Great customer service is still smoothing things out.
Time is obviously the “pudding prover”, but this concept is so layered, it is bound to catch, and possibly take off. Great article. Regards, David
I just bought Waipahu, HI, Grand Junction, CO, the Mall of America, JICPAC, Red Rocks Ampitheatre, the Colorado State Capitol Building, and my parents house! HOOORAY! I LOVE Weblo. Hehe. Seriously, everyone should join this thing!
I do real time reviews by writing them as I go. If I miss something, it gets missed in the review just like it does when I’m using the product. First, Tabblo has a Web 2.0 sounding name, which I don’t like. But it’s “blo” name allows for less abuse than Weblo. So it has that going for it. Signup was as easy as possible. Now I have to fully understand what Tabblo does. From the FAQ: A tabblo is a collection of photos and words brought together by a stylized template that can be customized to