[Espy]

There was also the fact that a lot of kids on Gaia use their parents' wallets to buy cash shop stuff, and Tentacl was an 18+ site, so people were a bit more reluctant to pour out all their money.

[ml1201]

Well, when I first donated I used my dad's card but I gave him money. Than again I was already over 21. XD

[Yokuutsu]

I don't donate much. I'm broke so Gaia got some money like twice, here and kofk once....and howrse once I think, but that's it XD

[Karastorm]

I just think the whole thing was never going to work. just really odd that they thought people would be as easily sold as gaia users.

[Yokuutsu]

I didn't like how tentacl's avatars were....and how like everything seemed to cost gems. It was like imvu except at one point I was kind of into imvu.

And tumblr. It was imvu and tumblr mixed together.

[ml1201]

That just sounds like a bad idea in general even thought I've never played/done imvu. x'D

[Karastorm]

It was a terrible idea Ml. They axed it when they relised it was never going to be the cash cow gaia is.

[ml1201]

Yeah, sounds like they were only trying to use it to make tons of money. =.=

[Yokuutsu]

They were and it's kind of sad.

[Karastorm]

With the mass migration from Gaia at the moment it wont be long before they either A) start a newAvatar sight or B) start thinking of closing it down. The B) may never happen as plenty are stillthere and suplying them qith real money for thier cash generators that they still havent got rid of nor will ever.

[Yokuutsu]

B isn't going to happen. Gaia is still massive even with all the people leaving (at least compared to most websites I'm on, even the ones where Gaians fled to XD)

[Dorian Pavus]

Gaia will die at some point, it's just a matter of when.
The ones in charge will fuck himself in the end, you'll see

[Karastorm]

Oh I know Gaia is HUGE compared to nice small places like this but yeah rats deserting a sinking ship seems about apt for it.

[Tohopekaliga]

It's actually surprisingly hard to remain profitable as a website, especially when it grows ridiculously large like Gaia.

I mean, sure, they're shoving a crazy amount of "BUY NOW" type things at you (and that inflation, wow), but I'm fairly sure if Gaia didn't do that at least somewhat, they'd be losing money hand over fist. Servers to serve that many people aren't cheap, and they have a full time staff.

There is a "sweet spot," I think, where a site can make money and not have to be like...that. Bigger than Trisphee (right now), and smaller than Gaia. Where that is, however, I do not know.

[ml1201]

As far as I can tell MagiStream is doing fairly well, they have 155,553 users listed on their page, but I think only half are active users? (a large portion of inactive users are actually bots ^^; )

[Tohopekaliga]

Yeah, that's a pretty good number.