Meez Becomes Profitable With 3 Million Monthly Users

How do you build a profitable business in the virtual worlds space all while avoiding social platforms like Facebook and MySpace? That’s exactly what Meez has accomplished and now they’re looking to jump on the social platform bandwagon with the launch of their MySpace application. According to CEO John Cahill, the company is attracting over 3 million unique visitors per month, 91 percent of which is U.S. based.

Revenue is now split between virtual goods sales and advertising, however virtual goods are the fastest growing revenue channel. Just like Zynga and Playdom, Meez is selling prepaid game cards at Best Buy and other retail stores. With upwards of 20 percent growth per month, the company is expanding at a rapid pace. However entering the social platform space will be challenging as they are competing with much larger social gaming companies (Zynga, Playdom, Playfish, etc) who are experiencing as much as 5 percent growth per day.

I asked John Cahill why they’d launch on MySpace prior to going live on Facebook and his response was that after surveying the company’s audience, they found that it was much more in line with the demographics of MySpace. The company will also be launching a Facebook application in the first quarter of next year. Cahill also told us that Meez is actually the primary social network for many of their users.

Rather than going to MySpace or Facebook, many Meez users are connecting with their real-world friends through the site. While that may be the case, the company is now going after a broader audience which uses Facebook and MySpace as their primary social networks. The company has no option but to expand where users are going and despite fierce competition, Meez will enter a world where 3 million daily active users, not monthly users, is not uncommon among game developers.

Despite the upward battle for new users, Meez has optimized the company for profitability and long-term user retention.

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