GG Market, Inc.
 | |
| Privately held company | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded 📆 | June 8, 2017 |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
| Services | Online shopping |
| Members | |
Number of employees | ~10 |
| 🌐 Website | ggmarket |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
GG Market, Inc., is an American electronic commerce company based in Los Angeles, California, that was founded on June 8, 2017. The website provides gamers of multiple video game genres the ability to buy and sell their virtual goods. For example, game accounts, in-game currency, in-game items, and in-game services (i.e., Powerleveling, etc.). The company doesn't directly buy or sell any virtual goods and only supports player-to-player trading for popular online video games such as World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Path of Exile, Rocket League, Fortnite, League of Legends, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and more.
History
The company was founded as a result of wanting to provide gamers a safe platform to buy and sell their virtual goods of multiple video game genres due to Ebay's decision to ban the trading of virtual goods.[1] Buying and selling of in-game virtual goods is a practice known as “real money trading” or “RMT”. While many game developers, such as Blizzard Entertainment (creator of World of Warcraft), prohibit the practice, it is common that goods and services within virtual economies will be sold on online auction sites and traded for real currencies.[2]
Player-to-Player Model
Enabling direct transactions between gamers allows for a lower chance of fraud or scams that have been associated with “real money trading” market for years. This is also another way to secure gamers virtual goods as trading with bots can eventually lead to losing the virtual goods. .[3]
Primary and Secondary Markets
The primary market for virtual items composed of video gamers purchasing virtual content directly from game publishers is tens of billions of dollars. Around 60% of console gamers have purchased virtual items at some point, along with 43% of PC gamers and 33% of smartphone gamers. In the last 12 months, video gamers have spent an average of $133 (console gamers), $96 (PC gamers), and $37 (smartphone gamers) on virtual items. That’s a big chunk of money going into the virtual item economy. PC gamers in 2015 spent $5.3 billion on downloadable content, while console gamers spent even more, racking up a collective bill of $6.4 billion.[4]
Legal Status
The end user license agreements (EULAs) of many online games state that the relevant game operators have exclusive control and ownership of the games, and virtual items therein have no legal significance or status. The EULAs are formed agreements that are non-negotiable, and users must accept their terms in order to play the games. This approach is the cleanest from the game operators’ perspective, as it protects them from exposure to liability arising from disputes involving ownership of virtual goods. However, it is the most divorced from users’ real-world experiences and expectations. For example, in 2010 a virtual resort was sold for $635,000 and a virtual space station for $330,000. Clearly, players would not expend such large sums, and billions of dollars annually in the aggregate, without an expectation of ownership. And virtual goods being devoid of legal status would provide no framework, and indeed a complete legal vacuum, in handling the most basic commercial disputes involving the purchase, sale or theft of such items.[5]
Top 10 Virtual Goods
With the passage of over two decades, the online gaming has grown from a hobby to an industry with almost $70 billion a year. A number of new features are added to the games, and now it has gone from just a game of single player to multiplayer. With the increased number of players, the industry leaders have also added new characters, shortcuts, and levels that can add great value to the player's satisfaction with games.[6]
- Planet Calypso from Entropia Universe = $6,000,000
- Club Neverdie from Entropia Universe = $635,000
- Crystal Palace of Entropia Universe = $335,000
- The Nest Egg from Entropia Universe = $70,000
- Amsterdam – Second Life = $50,000
- Ethereal Flames Pink War Dog – Dota 2 = $38,000
- Treasure Island – Entropia Universe = $26,000
- Age of Wulin Sword = $16,000
- Echoing Fury Mace – Diablo III = $14,000
- Eve Online Revenant Super Carrier = $9,000
References
- ↑ "Ebay bans Auctions of Virtual Goods". CNET News. 29 January 2007.
- ↑ "Virtual worlds wind up in real courts - Technology & science - Games". MSNBC. 7 February 2005.
- ↑ "Opskins trade ban toll estimated at $2,000,000". Cybersport. 25 June 2018.
- ↑ "How on earth is trading virtual items in video games a $50 billion industry?". Medium. 11 December 2017.
- ↑ "What Is The Legal Status Of Virtual Goods?". Forbes. 4 December 2012.
- ↑ "Most Expensive Virtual Items In Video Games". SuccessStory. 19 July 2018.
External links
This article "GG Market" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:GG Market. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
