据Inside Network作者Justin Smith和Charles Hudson联合发布的一份报告显示基于手机应用和社交网络应用的虚拟交易总额在2011年有望达到21亿美元。

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2009年该数据仅为11亿美元，而今年据评估可能将达到16亿美元的规模。这也意味着说从2009年到2011年短暂的两年之间，虚拟交易的规模就实现了双倍增长。

以手机游戏和社交游戏为代表的公司给玩家提供了游戏选择，以zynga旗下的farmville为例，玩家可以选择慢慢积攒经验和财富再去购买拖拉机道具，同时也可以通过信用卡进行虚拟交易购得。

可能是预见了虚拟交易市场的巨大潜力，EA在去年11月份以4亿美元的高价并购了playfish，而迪士尼也在今年7月收购了tapulous。

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据称zynga、playfish和tapulous将有可能占据2011年社交游戏营收市场份额的一半比例。这三家公司都有一个共同的特点，就是利用免费的模式吸引玩家上瘾，再最大可能地诱使他们通过虚拟交易购买相关道具获得收益。

Inside Network的创始人Justin Smith表示这些社交游戏公司相当擅长于让用户投入精力，然后再试图让他们从免费玩家转变成虚拟付费玩家。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.copm编译）

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浏览原报告，请点击Inside Virtual Goods: Tracking the US Virtual Goods Market 2010 – 2011, Is Here

Sales of virtual goods, a relatively new and wildly successful business model for mobile and social applications, are expected to soar to $2.1 billion in 2011, according to a new report published by Justin Smith and Charles Hudson of the Inside Network.

Though it had already topped $1.1 billion in 2009 and $1.6 billion this year, the market is expected to double that 2009 figure by 2011, welcome news to all the virtual good-fueled startups and businesses on social sites and mobile phones, like Zynga, Playfish, and Tapulous.

Those three companies, along with countless others developing for Facebook, iPhone, and more, rake in loads of cash by selling bonus content in their games for cheap. In Zynga’s “FarmVille,” for example, a user can either patiently accumulate money over time to purchase advanced in-game technology, like a tractor, or they can just type in their credit card and buy it instantly. In Tapulous, gamers spend money on new tunes to tap along to, since the game only comes with a set number of songs.

Likely foreseeing the rocketing value of the virtual goods market, EA acquired Playfish for $400 million last November and Disney acquired Tapulous in July. The other big player, Zynga, has no intention to be acquired or go public anytime soon; the startup is perfectly happy to expand its business globally with a half million dollars in investments and nearly that much in yearly revenue.

No matter the exit, Zynga, Playfish, and Tapulous combined will account for half of all social gaming revenue next year. All three are very good at one thing: attracting millions of users to their free, addicting games and encouraging them to buy into virtual good microtransactions.

“They’re focused on getting users more engaged and converting engaged users into paying users,” said Smith, the founder of Inside Network.（source：vator）