Posted 7 years ago
·
Author
There are three types of ‘currency’ on IMVU.
I use the term ‘currency’ loosely as only one of IMVU currencies has true value.
Credits:
IMVU Credits are the only true currency on IMVU. They can be bought, traded, used to purchase products and gifts, and can used for all product submission fees.
IMVU’s credits are all backed with real world currency, that is at some point someone has paid real cash to acquire them. They are the only currency that can pass from user to user.
Promotional Credits:
Promotional Credits are not credits at all but instead a kind of coupon equal to value in Credits and are given away to promote the use of the IMVU catalog.
Promotional credits can ONLY be use for acquiring items from the catalog for your own personal use.
When an item is acquired by using Promotional Credits the creator of that item is not paid but instead receives one Developer Token.
The ultimate goal of the promotional credit system is to give new users a kind of a test drive and get users so hooked on the IMVU catalog that they want to buy credits.
Developer Tokens:
Developer Tokens are points awarded for helping to promote the IMVU catalog to users. When an item is acquired by Promotional credits you will receive one Developer Token for that item. Developer Tokens can only be used for offsetting submission fees and for shoutouts. 1 token is worth 10 credits in fees.
Tokens are the bane of every developer’s existence on IMVU. Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned pro, you will grow to quickly hate them. They are however the cost of doing business here on IMVU so you will have to quickly learn to live with this reality.
Common Questions…
‘Why am I not getting paid when someone buys with promo credits!’
The simplest answer is, because your item was not purchased, it was an IMVU promotional giveaway.
IMVU’s business plan is to give new users a taste of what all of IMVU can offer, so they can experience it all, get hooked on it, before they need to outlay real cash on the site. Would you want to pay cash on a web based social network if you could not test drive it first?
IMVU feels that all developers must share the burden of promoting IMVU as all developers benefit from users that later become paying customers.
‘Why don’t I just get Promo Credits when some buys an item with Promo Credits?”
‘Why can’t I give away my Promotional Credits?’
In order for the real credit to have value, promotional credits must be removed from the system as quickly as possible. Passing promotional credits back and forth indefinitely would create a huge surplus, and decrease the need for anyone to ever purchase credits.
“Why is a Token only worth 10cr in fees?”
Unfortunately due to folks gaming the system in the past. The 1-10 token value had to be implemented to make scamming with alts to gain Tokens for submissions not as cost effective. If everyone behaved honorably then would we could have a 1 to 1 value, unfortunately the past has proven that if there is a way to scam, some will do it.
“My Product was 5000cr! why did I only get one Token?
As primarily a room maker myself I feel your pain here. The unfortunate answer here is that this is another reaction to users rampantly scamming the system for Tokens. As each high end product has the same IMVU fee as a low end product, it would mean more scammed tokens in one purchase, than multiple purchases of a cheaper product for the same number of Promos.
Under this system a user must sink* minimally 110 promos to get one Token. If it were profit based they could scam hundreds tokens and it would only sink* 110 promos.
‘What is a ‘Sink’?”
A sink is a method to pull currency out of circulation in order to counter the influx of new currency entering the system. IMVU has several sinks in place to remove currency.
-IMVU’s cut of the catalog sale fee
-Promos die when used
-Tokens are only useful for IMVU fees
-Submission fees
-Shoutouts
Without sinks in place the value of everything we as Content Creators do on IMVU would become worthless as the credit would quickly become plentiful and thus lose its value.
I use the term ‘currency’ loosely as only one of IMVU currencies has true value.
Credits:
IMVU Credits are the only true currency on IMVU. They can be bought, traded, used to purchase products and gifts, and can used for all product submission fees.
IMVU’s credits are all backed with real world currency, that is at some point someone has paid real cash to acquire them. They are the only currency that can pass from user to user.
Promotional Credits:
Promotional Credits are not credits at all but instead a kind of coupon equal to value in Credits and are given away to promote the use of the IMVU catalog.
Promotional credits can ONLY be use for acquiring items from the catalog for your own personal use.
When an item is acquired by using Promotional Credits the creator of that item is not paid but instead receives one Developer Token.
The ultimate goal of the promotional credit system is to give new users a kind of a test drive and get users so hooked on the IMVU catalog that they want to buy credits.
Developer Tokens:
Developer Tokens are points awarded for helping to promote the IMVU catalog to users. When an item is acquired by Promotional credits you will receive one Developer Token for that item. Developer Tokens can only be used for offsetting submission fees and for shoutouts. 1 token is worth 10 credits in fees.
Tokens are the bane of every developer’s existence on IMVU. Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned pro, you will grow to quickly hate them. They are however the cost of doing business here on IMVU so you will have to quickly learn to live with this reality.
Common Questions…
‘Why am I not getting paid when someone buys with promo credits!’
The simplest answer is, because your item was not purchased, it was an IMVU promotional giveaway.
IMVU’s business plan is to give new users a taste of what all of IMVU can offer, so they can experience it all, get hooked on it, before they need to outlay real cash on the site. Would you want to pay cash on a web based social network if you could not test drive it first?
IMVU feels that all developers must share the burden of promoting IMVU as all developers benefit from users that later become paying customers.
‘Why don’t I just get Promo Credits when some buys an item with Promo Credits?”
‘Why can’t I give away my Promotional Credits?’
In order for the real credit to have value, promotional credits must be removed from the system as quickly as possible. Passing promotional credits back and forth indefinitely would create a huge surplus, and decrease the need for anyone to ever purchase credits.
“Why is a Token only worth 10cr in fees?”
Unfortunately due to folks gaming the system in the past. The 1-10 token value had to be implemented to make scamming with alts to gain Tokens for submissions not as cost effective. If everyone behaved honorably then would we could have a 1 to 1 value, unfortunately the past has proven that if there is a way to scam, some will do it.
“My Product was 5000cr! why did I only get one Token?
As primarily a room maker myself I feel your pain here. The unfortunate answer here is that this is another reaction to users rampantly scamming the system for Tokens. As each high end product has the same IMVU fee as a low end product, it would mean more scammed tokens in one purchase, than multiple purchases of a cheaper product for the same number of Promos.
Under this system a user must sink* minimally 110 promos to get one Token. If it were profit based they could scam hundreds tokens and it would only sink* 110 promos.
‘What is a ‘Sink’?”
A sink is a method to pull currency out of circulation in order to counter the influx of new currency entering the system. IMVU has several sinks in place to remove currency.
-IMVU’s cut of the catalog sale fee
-Promos die when used
-Tokens are only useful for IMVU fees
-Submission fees
-Shoutouts
Without sinks in place the value of everything we as Content Creators do on IMVU would become worthless as the credit would quickly become plentiful and thus lose its value.