Gloebit Continues Fast Growth as OpenSim VR Currency
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Gloebit aims to be the PayPal of VR, providing user-to-user micro-transactions on a single digital currency within any immersive space. In January, the company launched an open beta for OpenSim, an established VR platform with a vibrant ecosystem and hundreds of separate virtual worlds. The reception has been incredibly positive with worlds and users quickly adopting this new commerce system. Below is some of the March 2017 data from Gloebit on OpenSim.
“I absolutely LOVE the concept of using Gloebits to do Hypershopping!! Thank you so much for bringing it to Opensim.”
— Angelic.Kisses @grid.genesismetaverse.com
Gloebit User Growth
Gloebit added 116 new accounts in March, a 35% increase over signups in February.
114 Gloebit user accounts were economically active in March, a 41% increase over February. Many of these users were active throughout the month; March saw 15 active economic users per day and over 50 per week.
35% of active economic users in March were both a buyer and a seller at some point during the month, a great indicator of Gloebit enabling a true ecosystem — not just a marketplace.
App Users Access Data Like Never Before
In OpenSim, users have an account in each different OpenSim world they visit and sometimes multiple accounts within a single OpenSim world. Gloebit tracks its transaction data at that avatar (app user) level, in addition to the Gloebit account level, thereby providing app users, as well as apps (businesses), access to an unprecedented amount of relevant data.
Gloebit added 192 new app users in March, a 42% increase over February. These were across over 15 OpenSim worlds which have enabled Gloebit and are visible on the Gloebit app discovery page.
145 app users were a party to a transaction in March, a 54% increase from February. On average in March, there were 10 economically active app users per day and over 50 per week.
26% of active economic app users both paid and received gloebits during March. This is a smaller percentage than the active economic Gloebit users (35%) who both bought and sold, illustrating that users do not behave the same across all their avatars in VR. In OpenSim, users might sell from a different avatar than they shop from or act solely as a merchant in one world and solely as a consumer in another. The beauty of Gloebit is that this user can tie all of those avatars to the same Gloebit account with no hindrance of transferring funds between them.
“I can see a bunch of Gloebit-enabled mall regions around the hypergrid, where I can teleport from one to another to another and just shop. And shop. And shop.
If this platform takes off, it might become the go-to system for in-world shopping, just like PayPal is the go-to option for Website payments.”
— Hypergrid Business in 2016
Gloebit is taking off and Gloebit enabled malls are indeed popping up across OpenSim.
Transactions
The transaction volume for March was 123,000 gloebits, a 61% increase over what was spent in February. This is roughly equivalent to $550.
In Gloebit-enabled OpenSim regions, the average transaction amount appears to be settling in the high 260s, or roughly $1.20 worth of gloebits. The number of transactions increased slightly less than the transaction volume, from 288 in February to 457 in March.
Transactions in March ranged from as little as 1 gloebit to as much as 5,000 gloebits with a median transaction amount of exactly 150 gloebits. The average spent per app user who purchased something in March was over 1,100 gloebits (~$5) and spend per purchasing Gloebit user approached 1,600 gloebits (~$7).
Taking over the (virtual) world
Gloebit is already off to a strong April and is continuing to bring on new OpenSim worlds. The Great Canadian Grid, one of the ten most active OpenSim hypergrid worlds, is one of the latest additions. Gloebit will continue to provide the best commerce experience for users who explore multiple VR worlds.
“…Expansion across the metaverse often meant dealing with different currencies or direct-to-paypal vendor systems to accommodate for total lack of currency… ease of use and reliability are what keeps people invested in the creations of the OpenSim community.
To the rescue comes Gloebit, a new currency specifically designed for the hypergrid. Gloebit offers stability, usability and a level of integration that has not been seen in OpenSim thus far.
— Zetamex Virtual Service Network
Once Gloebit has spread across OpenSim, the company will look to connect the OpenSim ecosystem to other VR platforms in the same way. VR needs a commerce backbone, and Gloebit is clearly ready to take on this role.
