Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Monday, May 15, 2006

Stardoll - More 2.0 Than 2.0

I've been meaning to write about Stardoll for quite some time now.

Stardoll is more 2.0 than 2.0 - it's something that represents the essence of 2.0 economics, but is completely off the radar of the usual suspects because it's not in the usual 2.0 markets.

Mini case study: I made the mistake of talking to a very well-known venture guy about it last time I was in SF, and he so didn't get it. From the look on his face, my guess is because Stardoll isn't just about culture, it's about toys; it's not just about toys, it's about girls. And thats a pretty unfamiliar territory for almost anyone in the Valley - whether geeks or beancounters - to find themselves.

Anyways, here's the deal. Stardoll gets some serious <3 from fans. Why? Because it does something deceptively powerful: it begins to make dolls plastic - it lets kids unbundle and rebundle them in the ways they like. It's related - though different - to the Neopets model (which is one direction in which Stardoll could head).

Now, Stardoll's model isn't perfect. There's much they could do to improve it. They have only halfway built a real edge strategy But it's a very nice start to tapping a vastly overlooked - and vast - market. Toys are going to be absolutely revolutionized by 2.0 models - Lego Factory is another nice example.

Kudos to Index for making the investment - I think it will be a winner if Stardoll can understand the new drivers of scale.

-- umair // 8:27 PM // 8 comments

Comments:

Please elaborate on what you think we could do better! I have a pretty long list myself, parts of which we're working on, but surely you'll have thought of things that I haven't. Thanks!

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Andreas Ehn // 12:44 AM

Stardoll is really cool stuff. Btw the link to the site is broken.

Rajan

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Rajan // 4:10 AM

Yeah, impressive.

I wonder if you could also let the girls design clothes. Something like the Threadless model where people send in designs and have the users vote for them.

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phil jones // 6:52 AM

That's pretty cool. I could see boys designing nascars or something sports related with a similar model.

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Anonymous // 5:31 PM

more cute animals n to gesign or paint houses rooms n stuff ok c ya
kelsey a member of star doll

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Anonymous // 5:23 PM

They got second round of funding.
This time from Sequoia ..

I think kavamme is reading you :)

Just my 2 cents here -

http://rajatgupta.wordpress.com/2006/06/23/stardoll-you-paper-doll-heaven/

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rajAT // 11:12 AM

so wat exzataly r u saying about Stardoll? cuz if u r talking bad about Stardoll, I H8 U!!! but idc if make a web site LIKE it I'd be happer! :)

ps I m on star doll.

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sillyfrog // 4:22 AM

I am a dress up games webmaster interested in building up my site and looking at various business models. I hear that http://www.cartoondollemporium.com got venture capital as well. They're not a celebrity-focused site, though; they're more about original cartoon artwork. I can't quite figure out how they make money (or Stardoll for that matter) besides advertising. Any opinions?

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Anonymous // 1:20 AM