Wagner James Au / New World Notes

I mentioned how there’s a growing real cash economy for VRChat-based content on Gumroad, an online marketplace for digital content, and reader Joey1058 explored the site deeper, then came back with this brief report:

I took a look at Gumroad. This site is awesome. It’s not tied specifically to a particular VR world. This means that somewhere up the road, creators can expand their line for any world they see fit to sell to. One more peg in place for the metaverse!

Quite possibly! In all honesty I didn’t know much about the site before this, but it claims that nearly 72,000 creators are selling content on the platform; according to SimilarWeb, Gumroad gets over 12 million monthly visits in recent months, which is quite decent. My pal Leigh Alexander sells her fiction on Gumroad and has this endorsement on the homepage, which is good enough for me.

Also to Joey’s point, the content for sale on Gumroad isn’t locked to any specific virtual world. (It even has some Second Life-related items for sale.) I don’t know if Gumroad will ultimately become the main commerce site for the Metaverse (single or plural), but I think he’s right that some kind of independent marketplace like this will be key to making it viable.