Mojikan is the Web Tamagotchi
MOR(F) Dynamics is an Australian based company that wants to bring Tamagotchi-styled messaging to the web, by inventing the Moji Intelligent Messenger, the world’s first fully real-time 3D instant messenger where virtual pets created by users come alive in real time and can understand human language, thereby giving them the ability to chat back to users.
Robert Fong is the co-founder and spoke to Mobinode about his aspiration and what makes the his product special.
How popular is Mojikan?
We have only gone into beta this July and we are looking at around sixty thousand unique hits per month and a download rate of about 1000 new sign-ups per month.
Who are Mojikan’s target user?
Our products are available to everyone to download, although our demographic studies do point to the fact that Moji is most popular with females and Asians.
Why Asians?
Based on our research, Asians have a higher tendency of joining communities, the idea of virtual pet is more attractive to Asians. Consumer behavior in China(QQ) and Korea(cyworld) have proven this. Also, the average time spent online for, say, Austrialian female from the age of fourteen to twenty one is far less than of their Chinese counterpart. We also feel that Asians supports the notion of virtual currency better than the rest of the world.
Is China a particularly interesting market?
Of course it is. As in any market, it is very important to partner with local content provider. As of now, there is no real substantial discussion with a Chinese partner. To illustrate the importance of local partnership, we had a very successful launch in Malaysia. Using Malaysia telco provider’s market knowledge,such as using their prepaid credit , Malaysians users are able to buy Mojikan merchandise.
How do you monetize?
We are looking at paid content from middle to late October. MojiKan Dollars (MK$) is the virtual currency in the Mojikan world. We are also unique to advertisers as our product placements are subtle but strong. For example, Nike partners with us to have their logo stapled on our Mojikan sports shoes. Our unified IM allows our pets to talk to MSN, Yahoo and GTalk, which helps to broadens the user base.
Malaysia Telco Prepaid Card with Mojikan Logo
Mojikan soft toys
We await Mojikan’s official launch with anticipation.
However, Mobinode feels that the download was big – over 80mb, and the installation was long. Mojikan has to work hard and bring down the installer size. Not everyone is going to wait for 80mb download just to play with a web pet. Also, the need to install .NET components might also put off the less patient users, not to mention also those with less Windows affinity.
We know that Frenzoo and IMVU are also eyeing for piece of the market. Mobinode has also wrote a few pieces on Novoking, There Second Life and HiPiHi.