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Zwinktopia

Zwinktopia at a Glance

• In short: A world targeted for teenagers featuring customizable 2D avatars, dorm rooms and other locations, and games to earn Zbucks.
• URL: http://www.zwinky.com/
• Maintained by: IAC Search and Media since April 2007.
• Price: Free
• Zwinktopia System Requirements: Flash-supported browser

Zwinktopia Overview

IAC first launched Zwinky in June 2006, a tool that allows teenagers to create and share 2D avatars, emoticons, cursor icons, and other items for teenagers to use on a blog or MySpace profile. After gaining over 4.7 million users, the company released Zwinktopia, a persistent world that provides over 28 unique locations (such as the beach, colleges, and bowling alleys) and several games and activities, including chat, shopping, events, and hanging out in customized dorm rooms. By playing these games, Zwinktopia users can also earn Zbucks, Zwinktopia’s unit of virtual currency, which they can use to purchase clothing, furniture, and various other items.

Compared to other virtual worlds, Zwinktopia is relatively unspectacular in terms of graphics or immersion. Whether it’s clever marketing, “tween baiting,” or teen branding genius, leveraged their growth substantially by first familiarizing kids with their avatar site Zwinky through aggressive marketing.Zwinky’s appeal is largely based upon these easy drag and drop customizable avatars that can be exported and used elsewhere. Unlike many other virtual environments, Zwinktopia avatars are not limited to in-world use. Avatars can be placed on blogs, websites, and social networking sites and so they are transportable all over the Web.

Some have expressed concern over some aspects of Zwinktopia. There is no age verification process and Zwinktopia does not filter language, personal details, or sexually explicit comments. Zwinktopia seems to be particularly appealing for middle school teenagers who may feel that they’ve “outgrown” some of the more protected hubs (e.g. the active filtering mechanism built into virtual worlds like Club Penguin) in pursuit of more freedom and social interaction. Zwinktopia is yet another virtual environment in the increasingly crowded space for teens.

Zwinktopia Screenshots

Zwinktopia Resources

• IAC Launches Zwinktopia at Peak of Virtual Worlds Hype, article at TechCrunch.com