Featured Listing: CONFIDENTIAL

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Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? How did you start the business?

Self-employed since I was 19 years old. Had several companies. My interest was sparked at one point at a marketing seminar on building digital products and communities that could generate money in both the short and long run and even become more valuable as time went on.

My wife had been playing an online dress up game (which is similar to our current game) for years and I was amazed at how much money players had left to collect digital clothing items. Then I decided to come up with my own game, better than the game my wife played and a few years later the game was a fact. That was over 8 years ago.

As an e-Commerce business, where are your products made?

We sell the credits that allow the players to buy virtual clothing items to dress up with. 80% of these garments are made by volunteers who also play the game themselves. And 20% is made by a paid graphic designer.

As a SaaS business, what can you tell us about your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost
$0, it is all organic traffic sustained by the 750,000 blogs and forums

Customer Acquisition Cost
We have 275,000 registered players who have generated $550k in sales revenue in the past 8 years. (Not including add revenue from 53m Yearly Pageviews). Each player has therefore worth at least $2 in sales revenue. Excluding what the current playing players will generate in sales in the future.

Also, by preparing the Flippa listing I did some research and realized that with 53m Yearly Pageviews this website can earn up to $221,000 yearly add revenue. (Which is more than 2 times the yearly sales revenue). So that would bring the CLV value of each new player registration way above $6,000.

How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?

No marketing. Only word of mouth and organic google traffic. Most players live in America, Northern Europe and Canada.

Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?

There are about 90 active volunteers who are in self-fulfilling teams, if someone quits, they hold auditions themselves and they judge the applicants myself I have not interfered with that for years. The volunteers manage the game for free, they moderate the forums, write articles, organize contests and design 80% of the clothing. These are players who like to contribute. It is even a very desirable position to be part of a volunteer team. It distinguishes you as a player from the rest, it makes them important.

Above these volunteers are 3 administrators. Native speakers of the language of the relevant Virtual Popstar. We currently have an English, German and Dutch version. These administrators are the only point of contact with the owner (me). These 3 persons do communicate in English. To be honest. I really don’t contribute anything to myself. I do pay some bills and have an occasionally WhatsApp chat with the 3 administrators. That’s frankly about it.

What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?

1 hour of free time per month to pay the bills and occasionally consult with the 3 administrators.

Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?

They can Add google AdSense for free and they can make the game available in more languages ($10,000/language). I recommend making the blogs and forums mobile responsive. The investment will be around $10,000 and will boost the organic traffic from google enormously, I do aspect up to 75%.

What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?

A gigantic one. Making a game was a fun adventure! We had to learn a lot from trial and error to eventually come to this fantastic end result. Which is an ideal basis for anyone who wants to practice this project further into the future.

How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?

Currently only from the selling of virtual currency (called credits) which players use to buy virtual items and paid memberships. In 2022 I will add advertising to the website since I learned I have missed out o a great deal of advertising revenue past 8 years. I seriously had no clue it would be that much.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

If I knew that I wouldn’t sell it.

How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?

It is all organic traffic sustained by the 750,000 blogs and forums, we have no marketing costs/budget. A missed opportunity?

How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?

As much as volunteers as needed (self-fulfilling teams). Currently sitting around 70 weekly contributing volunteers.

What’s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?

I have lost the passion because I don’t have enough knowledge and time to take this project to the next level. I also want to collect start-up capital for a new company that better suits my current stage of life

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