Members of the world create their own 3-D animated characters and equip their rooms with virtual goods. The animations are stylistic, not realistic, but they look much better than rival 2-D experiences such as Sulake’s Habbo. People can chat instantaneously, shop through a virtual goods catalog, play games, talk on forums, and use developer tools.

The world is still in its public beta and only emerged from stealth mode last Friday during a panel that I moderated on user-generated games at the Social Gaming Summit in San Francisco. The company’s investors include Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, and Bridgescale Partners. The company has raised more than $20 million in three different rounds. The most recent was an $11 million round in April 2007.

In the next week or two, the company will launch prepaid cards to enable members to buy credits that they can use to buy virtual goods in IMVU Credits. The cards will be available in major retailers such as Target, 7-Eleven, Blockbuster and Speedway. That will help younger people who don’t have credit cards to participate in the world more easily.

More than two million virtual goods have been created — about 3,000 each day. About 500,000 of those are 2-D stickers that people can use to customize their personal home pages. Other goods include clothes, accessories, pets, and scenes for rooms. People are creating the goods to express their own personalities, Rosenzweig said. (See sample room pictured left).

IMVU Credits has 60 employees. The sweet spot for IMVU is adults ages 18 to 24.