New Editorial

[Dustin]

I think you can't even get the coco roller avatar anymore. At least that's how it was a couple of months ago.

[Teelie]

AvatarLog lists it as retired so I think it's inactive.

[Dustin]

I don't know if anyone mentioned who the current CEO of Neopets, Inc. is or not, but it's Kyra E. Reppen. Last page we were trying to figure out of Doug Dohring was still the CEO or not. And on a side note, Neopets, Inc. have made over 6.7 million in revenue this year*.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/114/114314.html

[yvonne_l_d]

6.7 million is a lot of money to me, but I can see how it would look like small potatoes if you purchased the site for 124 million dollars. If that' 6.7 mill is pure profit it would still take 19 years just to break even on the investment. If that 6.7 mill is the total revenue before costs, then it would take even longer to recooperate.

[Dustin]

But the 6.7 is only what they've made so far this year in revenue. So they still have 5 more months to rake up some more dough.

[yvonne_l_d]

Well, assuming they make 12-13 million this year, it would still take at least 9 years just to break even on the 120 million investment. That's a poor investment. They would have been better off putting the money in the stock market.

Of course, nobody forced Viacom to buy Neopets at that price. I am among those who wish Viacom hadn't done so. But the reality is that they did. And they will try to make money from their purchase (which is reasonable, when you think about it). If they don't make money, they might sell it again, but I don't know if that would be very good for the game either. I'm glad that TNT has been looking at ways to make money that doesn't interrupt game play.

[Dustin]

If Viacom ever decided to sell it, who would be left to buy it? But they're changing the company name, Neopets, Inc. to Neostudios (am I right?), so I doubt they'd ever resale. Viacom has plenty of profit coming from all the other many companies it owns.

[Duke of Earl]

Okay, all of you need to WAKE UP. They're talking as if they have stopped making profit, and that this NC Mall is necessary for the continuation of Neopets. It isn't. The number of pageviews per day continues to increase, and therefore the revenue from ads rises as well. They are giving a deceptive justification for their greed.

I'm too lazy to read the rest of the thread.

But no, page views are not increasing or at a record level.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... opets.com/
(view the 3 year or more view)

[Dustin]

What came out in 2005 to make the traffic jump so high?
at the fact 2007 has some of the lowest traffic. Goes to show they're not doing something right. But I know a lot of people that don't play Neopets anymore, including myself.

[sid_basu4243]

What came out in 2005 to make the traffic jump so high?

I started playing Neopets! Actually, after the Mcdonalds promotion, at least for my case. I think there may be more like me.

But no, page views are not increasing or at a record level.

I think the graph shows the pageviews on the site as a percentage of all pageviews over the internet. That way the percentage is likely to drop with more sites appearing, and with more people getting connected to the internet.

In that same page (Alexa one), if you compare neopets.com with cnn.com or bbc.co.uk, you will see the pageviews are comparable, even though the reach is way less (for neopets). That proves even though fewer people go to neopets.com, but people going there are spending more time on the site on average (than on the other two sites).

[yvonne_l_d]

If Viacom ever decided to sell it, who would be left to buy it? But they're changing the company name, Neopets, Inc. to Neostudios (am I right?), so I doubt they'd ever resale.

Well, if it comes to it, and I don't think it will, if they don't make money, or they don't expect to make money at a rate they consider reasonable, and, if nobody wants to buy it, they'll probably shut it down. They will not be sentimental over a business decision. I don't think it will come to that point, however, because I would calculate the NC Mall to be quite profitable.

Viacom has plenty of profit coming from all the other many companies it owns.

That makes no difference. Just because they're making money elsewhere, doesn't mean that they will let one investment underperform. (And, to us, 13 million a year wouldn't be underperforming, but we're not a mega-billion dollar corporation.) I doubt they purchased Neopets for sentimental reasons. Every purchase they make is with the intention of bringing in more revenue. That's how they got so successful in the first place.

[smoker]

What came out in 2005 to make the traffic jump so high?
at the fact 2007 has some of the lowest traffic. Goes to show they're not doing something right. But I know a lot of people that don't play Neopets anymore, including myself.

It was probaly all those advertisements that drive people to insanity.

[Dustin]

What came out in 2005 to make the traffic jump so high?
at the fact 2007 has some of the lowest traffic. Goes to show they're not doing something right. But I know a lot of people that don't play Neopets anymore, including myself.

It was probaly all those advertisements that drive people to insanity.

Yeah, but those are easy to block. That was probably the start of the decrease in members, but the sudden changes in layout, decrease in actual worthwhile plot/wars, decrease in new species, worlds, and all of that probably led to a good decline in members.

[star2002]

What came out in 2005 to make the traffic jump so high?
at the fact 2007 has some of the lowest traffic. Goes to show they're not doing something right. But I know a lot of people that don't play Neopets anymore, including myself.

The Hannah and the Ice Caves Plot was on between October 21, 2004 and December 22, 2004 which corresponds to that time period but I don't know if it was that which made the traffic rise. Maybe there was some trading card promotion on?

[Kess]

There were also a lot of articles inmagazines & newspapers about neopets that year.

Funny... the domain name "ihateneopets.com" is owned by neopets.