Avatar (a user's own graphical representation), once popular to Korean internet gamers but has lost interest since is still very popular in Japan. So why are Japanese still loving it?

Japanese online game portal NHN Hangame, last year sales revenue recorded $53.5 Million Yen (USD $46 million). When realizing that over 80 percent of the figure came from avatar and related sales, it is a big surprise to Korean game companies indeed.

Avatar was once very popular with Korean online gamers but the popularity has subsided long ago, you won’t find very many Korean users willing to spend their money on building player profile.

But to Japanese users, it is apparent that having stronger community and related activities through playing game is more important for them rather than the winnings itself.

Consequently, out of 320 employees at NHN Japan, about 40 are dedicated in Avatar development with its own department. And on average, they produce up to 400 items on month basis which are being sold. It has accumulated over 20,000 items presently which about 30,000 users make purchases on a given month.

Most popular and preferred avatars are the ones with characters containing luxury brand names like Louis Vuitton and characters related to Disney or Bandai channels, affiliated sporting brand names like Nike, which costs up to ten times more (1000 yen) over regular items which cost around 100 yen. Even at that premium, Japanese users apt to buy them.

Vice President of NHN Japan Morikawa Akira revealed, "Avatar, a online representation of oneself are offered through Avatar shop in such unique way with luxury brands or special limited items among various sales approaches."

Japanese collection hobby also working on Avatar
Call it the cultural difference. The Japanese aspect of buying items is quite different compared to Korean style. Koreans like to purchase their own picks, where as Japanese prefer to collect randomly picked avatar items which are unfamiliar to them.

You can say that the traditional Japanese approach to collection hobby is applied to the avatar. The indicative of such phenomenon can be found with within Hangame site through services like ‘Abagacha’ and 'Abatama' which are not found in Korean sites.

The Abagacha service gives the user to pick an avatar item, in this case an egg, using 'Gotcha Gotcha!' spinning wheels which range from 100, 200, and 500 to 1000 yens per spin. From the spin wheel user picks an egg which becomes its own avatar and with daily care (giving petting once a day) by the user can make the egg to hatch and grow into various other characters. This approach also lets the user to care for somebody else’s egg, giving opportunity to meet a new friend.

Other services offered include, a surprise store that sells different items according to different hour of the day, send seal message to friends as a gift, and upon accumulating 20 of these gift seals, an avatar is given out as a reward to promote the avatar usage even further.

Due to the enormous popularity of the avatar, some are even suggesting Hangame to merchandise these items. For example, handing out dolls (Prize game) using an avatar from Hangame.

The avatar is the biggest reason for NHN Japan's success as dominating force in the market. What's more, it made difficult for its customers to leave them and migrate to other sites. They are reluctant to leave because of all the digital investments they have made with the avatar from Hangame.