Viximo, purveyors of fine virtual goods, have hired former IGN Entertainment executive Dale Strang as its new CEO, replacing interim CEO Dayna Grayson. Viximo founder Brian Balfour has more on the announcement.
Viximo has enjoyed the company of several CEO’s in recent years, here’s to hoping that Strang can bring something to the table to get viximo a larger slice of the billion-dollar virtual goods industry.
Part of the problem is that dating sites think they can create their own virtual goods platform. Certainly a number of sites have the in-house capabilities to offer virtual good, but then they are managing yet another service. And not giving it the care and feeding it requires, or adding new gifts, which can lead to disappointing results.
I think the value proposition driver that HotOrNot and Facebook make hundreds of millions a year with virtual goods is not such a solid argument anymore. If they are, why aren’t more dating companies partnering with viximo? Is the rev share deal not strong enough? Are the virtual goods ho-hum? Do dating site operators not care enough at this point? (what do they care about?)
Virtual goods has been a small slice of dating industry revenue, and until viximo proves they actually improve the online dating experience and drive significant revenue through a series of large partnerships, the majority of their business may remain on the social networking side.
Update: New viximo publishers include BlackPlanet.com, SmartDate.com and FanIQ.com. New milestone is the fact that Viximo’s Network has grown to 60 million users.
