Weopia Launches Dating Virtual World
Virtucom announced the launch of its entrance to the virtual worlds space today: Weopia, a virtual world aimed at bridging the gap between meeting someone through an online dating service and then meeting in the real world.
Unlike Utherverse, which looked to partner with sites like Flirt.com, Weopia stands alone–something that may be an extra hurdle in the way of users downloading the software. It sounds, though, like Weopia envisions itself as related to other sites: users pick the person they want to chat with in the virtual world and share a link to their private space rather than mingling with strange avatars. Matches occur elsewhere, and meetings occur in Weopia.
Interestingly, whoever starts the interaction will actually host the world on their computer rather than working through Weopia's servers. The company claims its peer-to-peer connection offers more privacy.
Currently Weopia is available to try for free. It sounds like after that users will have to purchase time allotments for the world. The introductory cost is $4.95 for a set of two passkeys (enough for two peopel to go on a date).
The company's marketing draws heavily on research that shows strong interactions in virtual worlds. It's worth noting that the research doesn't compare virtual world interactions for dating to other online interactions, like email or messaging through a social network, but it does make the reasonable (and well known around here) claim that virtual worlds provide context. If nothing else, there's an activity and something to talk about rather than just a medium for chatting.
However, without partnerships with dating services, Weopia could have a tough row to hoe when it comes to convincing the average online dater to use its virtual world instead of just IMing or picking up the phone (or convincing someone already inclined to use virtual worlds to pay for Weopia instead of using one of the many free options). Its tailored environments and "conversation starters" may be appealing, but they'll have to outweigh the price and time for downloading a standalone app.
"It will change the world of online dating. It will improve its effectiveness by leaps and bounds," says Dave Wilkie, Weopia's Co-founder and CEO. "Imagine you can now go further and deeper before you can decide to take it offline. And no face-to-face rejection or the need to get dressed up and spend the time and cash on a date with someone you only know by text chat."
