Six months later, it hit two million users, and three months after that, it hit three million. Nexon made a minority investment in Fantage and signed the rights to become the publisher of the site in Europe and Japan.Ī year after the launch, the site hit a million registered users. They signed up Nexon, the South Korean online game publisher that has made huge hits such as Maplestory, as a strategic partner. There are no ads, since parents don’t like advertisers selling stuff to their children. They started a premium membership that cost $5.99 a month. By May, the site had grown to 30,000 to 40,000 users. They created all sorts of clothing and accessories for the kids to choose from.
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The site was built on Adobe Flash, with no download required.
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They launched the free beta site in April, 2008. It’s a lot like the imagery in Gaia Online. And they can glide around on an air board. They can do three gestures: wink, wave, and cry. The characters have big heads, big eyes, and small bodies. The art is based on cute Japanese anime style, but with distinctly American twists. Then they created what would become Fantage, (short for Fantastic Age) a fantasy world modeled after Disney’s Club Penguin.Īs a web-connected virtual world, Fantage is a place where kids could create cartoon-like avatars and dress them up, chat with friends, and play simple games. After a few months, they showed it to a focus groups of kids, who hated it. Next, they decided to build a virtual world with built-in games for young kids. First, they tried an online math web site. They hired some contract programmers and decided to build a site focused on online education. This was Hwang’s third startup and Bae’s second. They started their company in January, 2007, in Palisades Park, N.J. From their experience in that market, they learned the virtue of patience and experimentation. Bae and co-founder David Hwang were steeped in Korean online games. We noted earlier this year that there are 200 kids virtual worlds in development Fantage has made it farther than most of them, but it still has a ways to go to catch up to the likes of Disney’s Club Penguin. It will also become a rarity among such sites: a profitable one. If the site keeps on growing, it will be a contender in the growing market for kids virtual world sites.
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