Zwinktopia - a new virtual world for young teens

IAC Consumer Applications and Portals (IAC CAP), a wholly owned business of IAC , today announced the launch of a virtual world for its 4.7 million active Zwinky users.

A Zwinky avatar is a virtual persona that users create as their online alter ego. Launched in summer 2006, Zwinky became an instantaneous viral success by allowing users to personally brand themselves at Zwinky.com and across blogs and social networks.

"Rather than build the virtual world first, we created Zwinky avatars for users to express themselves creatively and visually wherever they go online," said John Park, Executive Vice President and General Manager. "We then listened to our users to create the Zwinky Virtual World they wanted. With millions of registered Zwinky users, we will be one of the largest virtual worlds at launch."

The new virtual world, Zwinktopia, will provide Zwinkies a social community with 29 unique locations and dozens of games and activities. In Zwinktopia users can shop for the latest fashions, chat with friends, play games, participate in events, and hang out in their dorm. Each user will be able to earn Zbucks allowing his or her Zwinky to virtually shop at one of many boutiques for clothes, accessories, furniture and other products. Users have already put together more than 10 million outfits to avoid having to wear the same outfit twice.

"We are one of the fastest growing groups within IAC because of our ability to share highly personalized, relevant content such as Zwinkies, Webfetti, and Smiley Central with a ravenous, passionate audience," said Scott Garell, CEO IAC Consumer Applications and Portals. "Zwinktopia is a compelling environment for users to be whoever they want to be and interact with one another online."