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Meez was a free-to-play virtual world[2] that launched on March 28, 2006. Meez was developed by Donnerwood Media (a company based in San Francisco, California, that were also the license-holders for Tringo) as an "online entertainment" social networking service. It was founded by Sean Ryan,[3] the former vice president of the music service RealNetworks. Meez's CEO, John Cahill, was a former Yahoo executive.
 | |
Type of site | Avatar |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | December 2017 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California[1] |
| Owner | Donnerwood Media |
| Key people | Sean Ryan (founder) |
| URL | www.meez.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | March 28, 2006 |
| Current status | Defunct |
Meez's main draw was the Meez Nation, where users could visit several regions, known as "Hoods", to chat with other users in chat rooms.[4] Meez had over three million unique users, who would spend 60 hours a month on the site. There were 13 million registered Meez users by the time the site had become discontinued, 90% of whom were in the United States.[5] Meez advertisers included Nike, Rocawear, Domo, Coast, the NBA and the NHL.[6] MIS Quarterly estimated that its users were primarily children and teenagers.[2]
In 2007, Meez was named one of the Internet's five worst websites by TIME.[7]
Shut down
editMeez went offline in December 2017,[8] with no warning to its users, and its site domain later expired in March 2018. Donnerwood Media has not given any statements about how or why Meez was taken offline.
References
edit- ^ "Meez Launches Virtual World - Meez Nation". Thefreelibrary.com. 2008-07-01.
- ^ a b Roquilly, Christophe (2011). "Control Over Virtual Worlds by Game Companies: Issues and Recommendations". MIS Quarterly. 35 (3): 653–671. doi:10.2307/23042802. ISSN 0276-7783. JSTOR 23042802.
- ^ Rachel Rosmarin (2006-03-28). "Express Yourself – For A Fee". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2013-01-23.
- ^ "Meez: Virtual World". www.meez.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ Nick O'Neill (2009-10-20). "Meez Becomes Profitable With 3 Million Monthly Users". Socialtimes.com. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
- ^ Dean Takahashi (2009-10-20). "Meez teen virtual playground integrated into MySpace". VentureBeat.
- ^ "5 Worst Websites". Time. 2007-07-09.
- ^ Chinyere Ibeh (2021-03-09). "10 Computer Games that Should Bring Back Memories". Her Campus.