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IMVU (, stylized as imvu) is an online virtual world and social networking site. IMVU was founded in 2004 and was originally backed by venture investors
Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded as one of the earliest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley in 1976 and provides technology ...
, AllegisCyber Capital, Justin Greene, Bridgescale Partners, and
Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...
Capital."About: IMVU"
, IMVU website
IMVU members use 3D
avatars Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...
to meet new people, chat, create, and play games. In 2014, IMVU had approximately six million active players, and had the largest
virtual goods Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies. Virtual goods are intangible by def ...
catalog of more than 6 million items as of 2011. The business was previously located in
Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...
. The company name was neither an
acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
nor an
initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...
. IMVU co-founder
Eric Ries Eric Ries (born September 22, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author of '' The Lean Startup'', a book on the lean startup movement. He is also the author of ''The Startup Way'', a book on modern entrepreneurial management. Earl ...
described the accidental process by which the company acquired its meaningless name, and stated "It's not an acronym; it doesn't stand for anything", though he did note the name was originally used because the ''IM'' aspect invoked
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...
, something the company wanted to be associated with.


Credits

IMVU contains its own economy with a currency system based on IMVU " credits" and "promo credits." A third form of currency also existed for creators, known as "developer tokens," which were earned when a user purchases an item with "promo-credits." Credits could be purchased online using actual currency directly from IMVU. Credits can also be attained through IMVU gift cards available from retail outlets, as well as completing surveys and the game's daily spin, where a player can win either an item or an amount of credits. Promotional credits, abbreviated to “predits,” were a second form of currency distributed to members by IMVU and could be obtained by participating in various "Partner" promotions and a few activities that IMVU provides. With relation to a standard free or full member, promo-credits were similar to standard credits. A given number of credits equates, promo-credits could not be used to purchase items as gifts for other members and may not be traded back to an IMVU re-seller for actual currency. Promo-credits used to purchase a virtual product were exchanged into "developer tokens," also known as "dev tokens." The purchase transferred the promo-credits into developer tokens but netted a single developer token per purchase when promo-credits were used regardless of the price of the product purchased. In early 2021, the developers of the game made it possible for players to gift credits, hinting of a possible business addition to the game in the future.


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Imvu Virtual world communities Windows instant messaging clients American companies established in 2004 Technology companies established in 2004 2004 establishments in California Companies based in Redwood City, California


See also

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* ''
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'' * ''
SAPARi was an online 3D computer graphics, 3-D virtual world service developed in Java (programming language), Java and run by Sony. Users could speak to one another and join chat lobbies by using a dedicated server browser called the Community Place ...
'' *
PlayStation Home PlayStation Home was a virtual 3D social networking, social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XM ...
*
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*
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* '' There''