The World Is For Sale – Virtual Goods Get Real
Munich, Feb 26, 2009 – Novel online service whatsyourplace.com lets users buy places in the real world – in virtual terms
WhatsYourPlace is a Google Maps Mashup that lets members own and showcase their favorite places. Today, the web-service has officially launched an English language version to target the global market. The Munich-based online community has been up and running in Germany for more than a year, and successfully proven the innovative concept to meet substantial market demand.
People with an emotional attachment to any spot on the earth can now stake a virtual claim on it. Each place has its own URL and profile page („land register records“), and the land owner alone is entitled to edit that unique place profile. Hence, virtual land ownership is an exclusive way for expressing attachment to a place and to showcase that spot to the world. Editing means include picture upload, tagging, geo-marking, adding notes, or adding time stamps. As these features are embedded into a social community environment, other members will bookmark a parcel, comment on it, or even share their own pictures or related experiences with the land owner. More advanced community features include grouping places and inviting residents to a private area.
Membership to the community is free of charge, virtual land ownership comes at 9.95 USD an acre. Ownership is without time restriction and entails full reselling rights. All features bound to land ownership can be tested for free buy obtaining a “trial parcel”, which will be removed after 30 days. So far, over 25.000 acres have been sold. The entire world is for sale, the only exception being parts of the globe that Google Maps does not yet cover well. It is the philosophy of WhatsYourPlace that places must be absolutely unique, such that per place, there is only one owner worldwide. What sounds natural entails that English speaking users may see German content when visiting places owned by German members. We strongly believe that language diversity enhances the cosmopolitan aspect of WhatsYourPlace.
Motivations to buy a piece of the world go far beyond bragging friends for owning a great place. They are as diverse as emotional attachments to real places. To name but a few examples of why people buy places:
- Travellers may buy their favorite holiday spot as virtual souvenir
- Activists occupy locations related to their cause and thereby reach potential supporters
- People with any place-related field of interest (architecture, history, nature, movies etc.) may buy the related location and share their passion with like-minded people
- Couples may buy the spot where they first met as „partner place“
- Supporters of rock stars or sports teams may buy a stadium as fan ground and invite other fans to that place
- Traders claim famous places and aim for resale at a profit
- Business owners may buy any place that somehow represents their business concept and thereby reach their target customers. The search engine listing of each place and the possibility to add URL links further adds to the marketing potential
- Location evangelists find a great opportunity to exclusively showcase their favorite place in the world
The vision of the young management team behind WhatsYourPlace is to create a virtual pendant to the real world that is not only user-generated but also owned by its users. Acre by acre, virtual land owners add their unique perspectives to all those great places in the world. As personal and public histories of real places are intrinsically tied to their virtual counterparts, at WhatsYourPlace virtual goods come true. Together with our investors we believe in the platform to become the world's first spot for people to share their passion about places.
Value Maps GmbH has been founded in mid-2007 for the sole purpose to operate WhatsYourPlace. The go-live for German language version whatsyourplace.de was in December 2007. The two founders, Tobias Lampe (CEO) and Christian Weese (CFO) are supported by three German business angels with a strong background as serial internet entrepreneurs.