Interview: IMVU CEO Cary Rosenzweig on Going Public
IMVU has been out and available to the public since 2004, but the company has been in self-proclaimed stealth mode as well as beta. While occasionally Google AdWords have promoted the 3D chat or banner ads have shown up in virtual worlds, CEO Cary Rosenzweig explained that there hasn't been much evangelism or explanation. That changed today with an announcement that the site boasts 20 million members and the largest catalog of virtual goods with close to 1.7 million items.

"At this point what we're trying to do is begin the process of sharing IMVU Credits more broadly and starting to talk about some of our achievements and accomplishments," said Rosenzweig. "We have the world's largest digital goods catalog. Our total registrations are above 20 million. Another highlight is we want to begin to talk a little more explicitly, from a business standpoint, going out and saying our revenues are currently a $1 million a month, signaling that this is not just an idea, but a business. We are now launching prepaid cards. We've announced it on the site to our community. We're going to be in Target, 7-11, Blockbuster, and Speedway, all stores in the US within the next 1 week to 2 weeks. We're looking forward to providing a wonderful opportunity for those who don't have credit cards or choose to not have credit cards. We think that will really help us and help our community."

"One other point, we are keeping beta on the site: we have very high standards and our community has very high standards as well," continued Rosenzweig. "Until we feel like we've met those standards, we're going to keep it on the site as a visual reminder that we're striving for something better."

Virtual Worlds News: Does that mean we're going to see a Gmail-style, never-ending beta?

Cary Rosenzweig: I don't think so. We really do believe there will be a point where we would like to remove that and it will be a great triumph for the community and us. We're just not there yet in terms of our ideals in how we want to serve the community.

VWN: So why go public now?

CR: We've reached a point where the size of the community and the achievements we've reached have given us a strong base to build from. We want to reach a new consumer base. We grow primarily virally and also through paid banner ads. We believe it's time to go out to reach new people that we haven't before.