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Within just three months of its launch, BarbieGirls.com (www.BarbieGirls.com) has become the fastest growing virtual world, touting 4 million registered users to-date and growing by an average of 45,000 girls per day. This week, BarbieGirls.com looks to build on this unprecedented growth with the highly anticipated debut of the Barbie Girl™ device. Rolling into stores now, with a suggested retail price of $59.99, the multi-functional Barbie Girl™ device will be one of the most exciting tech gadgets introduced for girls this year, functioning as a portable music/MP3 player, next generation fashion doll and a "key" to unlock exclusive play features and trillions of character and room combinations on the popular BarbieGirls.com website. The portable, doll-inspired Barbie Girl™ device connects to a girl's computer via a USB-enabled docking station and allows girls on BarbieGirls.com to adopt pets, such as a puppy, bunny or monkey; enter exclusive hangout spots within the world; "buy" or "gift" special fashions, including everything from a tiara to a cowboy hat; and decorate their rooms with girl-favorites such as an aquarium, tiki hut, and even a juke box that plays music.
In addition to unlocking trillions times more play on BarbieGirls.com (on top of what is already a robust play experience for non-Barbie Girl™ Device owners), the sleek, handheld 4 ½-inch Barbie Girl™ device is a music player for MP3- and WMA-file songs. Not only a music player but also the next generation of fashion doll play, the Barbie Girl™ device features a range of snap-on, mix-n-match fashions and accessories, so girls can customize and style out their Barbie Girl™ device, while also making a fashion statement of their own with clip-on earrings and beads for the device's earphones.
"Barbie continues to lead and evolve as the way girls play evolves, and Barbie Girls has proven to directly deliver against what today's girl wants, combining the perfect trio of fashion, music and an online virtual world," said Chuck Scothon, general manager and senior vice president, Girls, Mattel Brands. "We are thrilled to be the first global, virtual online world designed exclusively for girls and offer girls an unparalleled online/offline hybrid play experience."
Barbie Girls™ – "Biggest Bit of News in the Online World..."
In late April, the beta version of BarbieGirls.com launched globally, providing girls with "virtually" everything they could want online, including giving girls the opportunity to create a highly personalized avatar and "move" it throughout the Barbie Girls™ world, design their own rooms, shop with B Bucks (virtual currency) that girls can also earn, play games, watch videos and have real-time chats with other girls online. With 4 million users registered to-date, the site has been a runaway success in its beta phase and is scheduled to come out of beta in late August, receiving notice by industry experts.
"The biggest bit of news in the online world industry didn't come from E3 in Los Angeles...in the first 60 days of its existence, the new online virtual world Barbie Girls has signed up three million members, and they're adding new ones at the rate of 50,000 a day," said Wagner James Au, GigaOM. "This is staggering growth by any standard, but even more so because Mattel's MMO is still in Beta." -Mattel
Posted August 13th, 2007 by Anastvatz
