Users put on their own fashion shows, form virtual model agencies, and host awards show ceremonies. “Every time there’s something major in pop culture or there’s a trend in fashion, it’s immediately on IMVU,” Aamodt confirms. “Part of that is because dressing up an avatar in a digital space gives people access to anything that they want to look like, and it’s hard to do that in the real world.” On the night of the 2019 Met Gala, for instance, there were virtual versions of celebrities’ campy red carpet looks up on IMVU before the cameras stopped flashing. “Fashion is at the epicentre of why people create avatars and connect with others on IMVU,” says Lindsay Anne Aamodt, the site’s senior director of marketing. I Shop Therefore I Am, as Barbara Kruger put it in her famous 1990 piece, takes on new resonance in this digital world. Fourteen billion in credits, or $14 million, exchanges hands over 27 million transactions each month. IMVU’s virtual store features 50 million items made by over 200,000 creators. The point of IMVU is to connect virtually with friends and to potentially make new ones, but shopping is no small part of the site’s attraction. If you aren’t one of those millions, here’s a primer: On IMVU, users create personal avatars and dress them in clothes designed by fellow users – creators, in site parlance – bought with credits paid for with real money. The online metaverse and social networking site IMVU grew by 44 per cent during the pandemic it now attracts 7 million active users a month, most of them female or female-identifying and aged from 18 to 24.
0 kommentar(er)
