IMVU is launching Live Rooms, a new part of its social network where you can assume a digital identity with your own avatar and socialize with other characters.
The new feature lets users create rooms where they can host live events for thousands of concurrent users including fashion shows, talk shows, lectures, virtual weddings, and more.
Redwood City, California-based IMVU is like a blast from the past, as it was founded in 2004 as a place for teens to entertain each other with avatars and decorated rooms. It was not so different from Second Life in that way, but it wasn’t an interconnected world. The social network survived, and it has now had more than 200 million registered users to date. It still has 6 million monthly active users and 225 employees.
Live Rooms is a new product feature on IMVU Mobile (iOS and Android) and the new IMVU Desktop 3.0 app. For the first time on the popular global platform, Live Rooms enables users to broadcast, entertain, show, demonstrate, or present to a larger group of people.
In an email, the company said with Live Rooms, users can entertain and engage an audience of thousands, invite others to present with them and customize their presentation space. The audience can chat, interact and tip the room host. It’s unlike anything the company has done on the platform before, as the company previously focused on one-to-one or small group conversations.
The launch of Live Rooms provides users with a new way to create interactive content for others to engage with and enjoy. Live Rooms are public spaces that can hold thousands of viewers and can host up to ten presenters in real-time.
Daren Tsui, CEO of IMVU, said in a statement that the company launched Live Rooms to bring people together around entertaining and engaging events that drive a connection with the audience. The goal is to foster a strong sense of community and belonging that you feel you are at a major event like a comedy show.
Hosts have a wide variety of options to personalize the 3D room and presentation space using items designed by IMVU creators, purchased in the IMVU marketplace.
Multiple levels of communication can happen in Live Rooms – users can have side conversations with friends during the show – just like at real life events. Audience members can explore the 3D room freely, and also leave tips for hosts in the form of IMVU Credits, incentivizing hosts to create engaging presentations.
Live Rooms finished release on mobile in December and has been accessed by over 8 million users attending and hosting events. The Live Rooms inaugural event was launched by IMVU and YouTube creator Carmen King immediately reached the maximum room limit of 1,000 concurrent users who joined her talk show about friendship on IMVU.
King launched a talk show, “The VU Live” that helped create a better connection with fans. IMVU has a catalog of 40 million virtual goods created by 50,000 creators.
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