Social worlds are a global phenomemon. But not only do players from across the world and from different cultures meet each other within the largest and most well known worlds -- there are also many worlds out there that are not obvious to the worldwide audience for their willingness to serve specific countries needs, such as use of local languages or other important cultural features.
Timik.pl, developed by virtuMedia, is one such world -- a social world, broadly similar to the globally successful Habbo Hotel, that serves Polish teenagers in the Polish language. Only recently launched and still in a public beta, we talked to virtu Media's CEO & Founder, Jaroslaw Jankowski, about development, the Polish market, and future plans for the world.
Introduce us to Timik!
Jaroslaw Jankowski: The main goal of Timik.pl is to integrate a multiplayer environment with chat systems, contests, and multimedia. The platform offers many types of user activities. They can perform their own quizzes and contests by using special applications, organizefashion shows, use a database and share uploaded movies with friends; there's even a fortune teller application. Users can explore public and private spaces, arrange their own rooms, and use currency.
In private rooms they can organize own photo galleries, create events and invite friends. They are represented by an avatar called a Timik, which can be created in different forms, from typical human beings to ghosts, animals, even dragons.
It's still in beta?
JJ: We are still launching new modules, and some areas need explored more deeply. We are currently working on some multiplayer games packages and simulation modules that will be a part of the educational areas of the system -- related to real life activities like business, financial markets and investments that will open some new opportunities to our members.
What is your expected revenue stream?
JJ: Right now we're mainly focused in giving our users as much entertainment as possible. We are really happy that they are involved in a community growth and we are in close relation with them at the moment. Revenue is not the main point at this stage, but we have Premium Accounts and some ongoing negotiations with potential partners from several sectors.
What was development like?
JJ: There was an international team involved in the core of the program and in its engine development: it was a joint venture with the development company Teemic, which has a few years experience in avatar systems development. Development took about eight months. At this stage, our team is more involved in the front end development and launching new modules.
What is the Polish market like?
JJ: The Polish market is growing and in the last few years, the number of broadband connections have rapidly increased. The number of Internet users is about 13 million now, which is about 37% of the country. Entertainment portals and websites represent a high share in the total internet traffic, and there are some well known online multiplayer and strategy games which have been on the market for a few years that are popular in Poland, for example Plemiona and Travian. Users from our target group tend to play international or English language based worlds like ClubPenguin.
What titles inspired you and your team?
JJ: We were involved in online projects related to online communities, and we were looking for more natural ways of communications than user comments, or blogging. At an early stage, our first ideas were watching images, movies and talking about them with friends using a chat system, like in real life, instead of sharing thoughts via comments. This early stage was a good base for further ideas that ended with virtual world and covered most of the entertainment areas that we had in mind. We were inspired mainly by the platform developed by Teemic team which became the base for later development and the current version.
Is there a Polish development community? Do you have any competitors?
JJ: I am involved in research community at University, which brings some inspiration for system development. Knowledge sharing environments create valuable relations and this is a good base for commercial projects too. At this stage there is no other virtual world targeting teenagers in Poland and there are no direct competitors which use our national language.
Do you plan on launching this title internationally?
JJ: We have some international plans related to less explored markets in eastern, south Europe and some other regions, but before anything, we need to concentrate on the system development to have a completely integrated package with most of our projected functions available.
