Virtual world company Gaia Online raises $11 million series C
Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/64g8gc
Gaia Online, the leading online hangout for teens, has raised $11 million Series C round from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). eMarketer is predicting that the number of teen internet users visiting virtual worlds will jump from the reported 8.2 million users in 2007 to 20 million in 2011, Gaia Online is targetting this growing audience by providing rich and engaging experiences that are natural extensions of their real-life interests.
On Gaia, you can choose to be who you want. With thousands of items to choose from, your Gaia avatar can be classy, sexy, scary or ridiculous…or all of the above. You’re limited only by your imagination and your Gaia Gold.
The company was founded in 2003 and has grown to one of the largest and most active immersive online communities for teens and young adults. Each month more than 5 million unique users socialize, play games, watch movies in the virtual cinema and express their individuality and creativity through customizable avatars and profiles.
Gaia Online has the highest average visit time among social networking websites, according to an April 2008 report by research group Hitwise. More than 350,000 Gaians log into Gaia Online each day, many of them participating in one of the most active forums on the Web with more than 1 billion posts to date. In June Gaia Online was named to TIME.com’s 50 Best Websites of 2008 list.
