tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885167082319491081.post-30180764745237418542008-04-01T17:39:00.005-04:002008-04-01T18:24:52.524-04:002008-04-01T18:24:52.524-04:00<p> Over New Years I was up visiting my friend Greg and his family. His dad, Jim, is the distributor of the Hannah Montana video game (sales were so good, Jim says "it's the reason we have a Christmas this year"). But even within the household, it was a big hit with the ladies. It's a Wii game, so using the controllers you do a Guitar Hero type of thing except instead of music is dance moves. No one cared about that. But it earned points to <i>go shopping</i> in <i>virtual stores</i> where you can <i>try stuff on</i>. It's done quite well, and less retarded (hmmm, or maybe <i>more</i> retarded) than I made it sound. </p> <p> I'm always looking for the Next Big Opportunity. Oddly, even though the Wii has the Interwebs built-in, there is no product placement and no way to add more items to buy or share outfits with the other Mii (your virtual self icon). Being a complete dork, and while watching Cheryl and Emily <i>freak out</i> on this game ("No, go back and get the other dress." "oh this is cute", etc...), and thinking, "you can put this on the Web and make MILLIONS". </p> <p>Surprise, I have decided not to launch a consumer shopping website targeting women, but I keep an eye on the space. Since then, the <a href="http://www.hellokittyonline.com/us/">Hello Kitty</a> online world is about to launch, <a href="http://www.glammedia.com/">Glam Media</a> (ads for women) is rocking, and yahoo launches <a href="http://omg.yahoo.com/">OMG</a> and <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/">Shine</a>. </p> <p>But the most interesting is the oddly named <a href="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/home">polyvore.com</a>. This going to be huge. It's part art-project, part paper-dolls, part social-network, but using <i>real items</i> from existing web sites. Instead of me explaining, just go to the site and click "explore". So far a few of my female friends are completely <i>addicted</i> to it. In addition to obvious CPA deals, they also white label their tech to web sites to provide virtual dressing rooms. There are other versions of this <a href="http://www.stardoll.com/en/">Stardoll</a> and <a href="http://home.zwinky.com/">Zwinky</a> for even younger kids, but this is by far the most interesting. </p> <p>If you know anything about shopping, and, uhh, pre-teen girls, 2008 is the time to launch websites and video games targeting them. Me? Well, I go clothes shopping like 2 times a year, in mostly non-colors. And for tech? I mostly do servers and find UI development annoying. And I don't know doodle about video game systems development. FAIL. But maybe you can think of something. </p>nickghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04659163622120256748noreply@blogger.com1