SAN JOSE, Calif., June 19 -- Gaia Online, the fastest growing hangout for teens on the web, and Scion, a marque of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., today announced a joint partnership that will enable Gaia members to buy and customize virtual versions of Scion cars. Beginning with the virtual Scion xB available today, Scion is the first auto maker to introduce its vehicles to the more than two million teens who visit Gaia every month. 

After getting their virtual Scion xB, Gaia members can 'pimp their rides' with customizable options such as wheels, decals, fog lights, tail lights, spoilers and more. Gaia members can also compete in and socialize at drag races, join forums dedicated to car culture, and nominate their cars for accolades within Gaia's arenas. Enterprising members can trick out and sell cars in Gaia's marketplace for gaia online gold, the currency of the Gaia economy. 

"Teens spend hours every day on Gaia because there are endless opportunities to have fun, socialize and express their creativity. Customizing Scions is an exciting new way for our members to do all three," said Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online. "Teenage obsessions with cars go back more than half a century, so bringing Scion into the Gaia community is a great new way to fulfill that interest."

  Gaia Online is a fun, social environment online where teens can make friends and express their individuality through customizable avatars and homes -- and as of today -- cars. The site combines elements of social networking, virtual worlds, casual gaming and narrative entertainment. The Gaia community boasts more than two million unique users per month (up three fold from a year ago), with members spending an average of more than two hours on the site per day. Gaia's forums have exceeded a billion postings with a million new posts being added each day, and the Gaia economy sees more than 190 million in gaia online gold transactions per day. 

"We've had great success reaching virtual world visitors who might not be familiar with us otherwise. Gaia Online is a fantastic next step in our approach," said Adrian Si, Scion interactive marketing manager. "Gaia offers a community of young, creative people who seek customization and fun, so it's a perfect match for the Scion brand." Beyond the Scion personalization options, drag races and other features available today, Gaia will introduce new ways to modify cars and activities involving vehicles in the future. 

"Gaia has created immersive experiences for sponsors around New Line Cinema's movie The Last Mimzy and Time Warner's movies Gracie and Nancy Drew, and the uptake by Gaia members has been phenomenal. We believe these sponsorships represent some of the highest engagement between brands and online communities on the web, and we expect the same kind of intense interest and participation for the Scion partnership," added Sherman. 

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I would never have heard about Gaia Online if I didn’t have a teenaged daughter. As Wagner points out, the service began as a fan site for teens who were interested in Japanese-style animation, or anime (and may have started with some animation students from Toronto’s Sheridan College, according to this three-year-old article from Forever Geek) and has been kind of flying under the radar — at least until it raised a bunch of venture capital financing last year. Now it has two million unique users a month, many of whom come for the online games but also for the chat forums and the various anime-related, role-playing fiction forums. 

The latter are what my 13-year-old daughter spends most of her time on, although she does play games from time to time and has also accumulated a fair stockpile of virtual Gaia currency,gaia online gold (which unlike Second Life can’t be exchanged for real-world currency — an interesting decision on the part of Gaia’s creators). But her favorite thing is to join a forum where someone has begun writing a story about a particular character, and to help expand and extend that story — with half a dozen other writers all taking part.

  I find it fascinating, and she clearly does too. And it seems to have a considerable amount of staying power, since she has been involved with the site for two years or more now. 

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I'm working on a new column for BusinessWeek Online about virtual paper dolls and their popularity with tween and teen girls. I did an email interview with Craig Sherman, the CEO of Gaia Online, and an avatar community that has been buzzed about by several leading tech blogs in the past two weeks after their Web 2.0 Expo appearance. I think Gaia seems to have the right combination of mange/comic book appeal, avatars and virtual gaiaonline gold to attract and hook teens. I think they're probably less "paper doll" and fashion oriented and appeal more to the manga fan boys/girls -- and as Ypulse readers know, manga is huge. I was at Borders in the Chicago suburb of LaGrange and watched as teens wandered in and out of the manga section. One of Craig's responses really struck me -- he said the most popular activity on Gaia is the forums. It's funny with all the Web 2.0 hoopla, that forums, which have been around forever, continue be the most popular community feature. 

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And most important for the business-minded, the sites create a space for building a brand and advertising a product. Most offer some sort of virtual currency, whether it's Trollz "Trollars" or “gaia gold," to buy virtual goods, often distributed as a reward or incentive for participation. Some of them also sell virtual items for real money. It is said that a store sells between 60,000 to 180,000 gaia online gold a day. In addition to virtual goods, many of these sites want their users to buy real-world products. Mattel hopes to sell Barbie-inspired handheld music players to interact with the Barbie Girls site. Gaia Online sells all manner of physical garb.

 

For established brands like Barbie, Trollz, and Disney, it's all about getting girls to convince their parents to go from virtual fun and games to real-world purchases. For the startup companies without strong brands or established products, the financial model is more about sponsorships and brand integration. WeeWorld, a site that lets you create cute avatars that can act out emotions using instant-messaging commands, partnered with AOL Instant Messenger to set up a sponsorship with Skittles where WeeMees sport Skittles bikinis, ride Skittles skateboards, or wear Skittles T-shirts against an animated Skittles background. New Line Cinema recently launched a promotion on Gaia Online for its film The Last Mimzy, inviting Gaians on a quest to view the movie trailer and then retrieve a "Mimzy plushie" to accompany their avatars.

 

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When you think about paper dolls, you probably think about children from past generations painstakingly attaching little outfits onto a cut-out female figure. Paper dolls have come a long way since then.

 

Teen and tween girls these days spend hours dressing up dolls—only these are online, in the form of avatars, or virtual representations. Consider Mattel's (MAT) Barbie, who was also a favorite paper doll. She now has a virtual world called Barbie Girls where girls can create their own avatars and try on clothes at a virtual mall with gaiaonline gold. And Barbie isn't alone. A whole wave of avatar sites is hoping to capitalize on this age-old desire.

 

Part of the fun of virtual worlds for teens is experimenting with identity. Boys do this all the time in video games where they assume fantastic identities very different from whom they are in real life. For tween and teen girls, fashion has always been a big part of self-expression. How else to explain the popularity of Teen Vogue, which stands tall even in a ravaged teen-magazine market, where many publications are going online or folding altogether.

 

It's also why traditional brands such as Mattel, Disney (DIS), and Trollz maker DIC Entertainment have entered the space. Each site—Barbie Girls, Disney Fairies, and Trollz.com—offers the user the ability to create her own character, play games, chat with other avatars, and decorate her own "room," or page. Startups Stardoll and GirlSense are also kid-friendly and compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Gaia Online, Wee World, Meez, and IAC Interactive's (IACI) new Zwinktopia all cater to teens (and adults) 13 and up.

 

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