Sunday, March 28, 2010

History of Starchat - the Virtual World

It all started back in 2001, when a young Estonian entrepreneur saw an untapped market in the then-developing virtual worlds industry. He wanted to create an interactive online community targeted at the Balkan regions of Europe, and this is when he began gathering the resources and people to make it happen.

By 2002, an early Starchat prototype emerged onto the scene, generating some interest amongst teenagers and young adults throughout Estonia. Although there was some initial hype about the new MMO, there were not enough resources to get the word out. Starchat didn't really take off until 2004, when a major update saw the release of a new website, and the launch of Starchat Lithuania and Starchat Latvia. This is when things started to get serious!

Before the official launch in 2004, Starchat managed to create a partnership with Jippii, a successful online gaming website. This partnership allowed Starchat to reach out to thousands of new users, and by the time the updated Starchat websites were released, there was plenty of new interest in the game and new players flocked to join the new virtual world of Starchat.

Over the years, Starchat has expanded their product with additional features, offering users a selection of over 3000 virtual items, over 500 virtual clothing items, and a variety of games including Tetris, Battleships, FoodConnect, Mahjong, Snake, Starhunter and more! The events and competitions in Starchat were always being updated, and new campaigns constantly being released, ensuring user activity and retention.

Through partnerships with major companies such as MTV, TV3, and Power Heat Radio, Starchat has managed to reach an audience of over 400,000 users, which is quite impressive considering how small the populations of the targeted countries are. To gain some perspective of this, Starchat Lithuania currently has over 200,000 users, and Lithuania has a total population of 3,358,371. This means that Starchat reaches around 6% of the entire country's population - pretty impressive, no?

So, this brings us back to today. At the moment, Starchat is preparing to release it's first ever English version, with a potential market of over 440,000,000 people. Will it be a success? Well, we will just have to wait and see! There is a lot of competition in the English sector of virtual worlds, so Starchat will have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Hopefully it will become one of the market leaders, but it is already way behind. Time to catch up, Starchat!

Haven't registered for the English version yet?
Register for Starchat Australia - the NEW virtual world.

For those of you who weren't around back in the day, here are some dusty old screenshots we found lying around. Check out what Starchat was like all those years ago!

Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World
Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World
Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World
Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World
Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World
Starchat - Online Virtual World Starchat - Online Virtual World

Monday, March 22, 2010

Starchat Australia is here!

Hi everyone!

From the creators of Starchat in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, now comes Starchat Australia - www.starchat.com.au - a new online virtual world that you can play via your browser!

Due to popular demand and the success of the Starchat franchise in Europe, Starchat Ltd have finally decided to let us English-speaking folk in on all the fuss. Starchat is an online virtual world for teenagers and was first created back in 2001 after potential in the online MMO market was recognized.


Starchat


Over the years, Starchat has partnered with companies such as MTV to bring young people a cool new place to hangout online. In Starchat, users can customize their own unique virtual avatar, play games, attend events, enter competitions, socialize with other players, create personal spaces which can be decorated with virtual items and furniture, and the list goes on!

Starchat Ltd hope to continue building on the success of the Starchat product by introducing it to the English market. Starchat Australia (www.starchat.com.au) will be available to all English-speaking countries which includes the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada as the main target audience. Starchat is set to release in late April - early May, and pre-registration is now open.

Anyone who registers before the big launch will automatically receive a free rare virtual item - the Starchat trophy - which will never be released again. So, if you're an avid MMO fan (particularly of the community aspects), then you should be signing up to this promising new online game now! Take advantage of this exclusive offer and sign up via www.starchat.com.au/register.php.

We hope this virtual world venture pays off for Starchat, because they certainly deserve it after all the hard work that has gone into building the brand, userbase, and product itself. From what we hear, there are big things on the horizon for Starchat, and this will be one MMO that you'll want to keep an eye on!

Maybe we'll see you in Starchat?