Who would have thought that spending real money for online merchandise would become one of the most lucrative businesses of today?  Blame it on those who love online role-playing games and those who love to collect powerful weapons, and those that want to fast-track their game enjoyment. These are the people that are willing to shell out real cash for virtual farms, digital swords and fully decorated pixelated environments.  The growing fanaticism over mobile social gaming is a huge contributor to the healthy cashflow within the virtual sphere, which is estimated to reach billions this year alone.

With this booming industry ahead of us, it is a smart move to look at trends and patterns that could help developers, publishers and enterprises develop better strategies. MocoSpace, one of the largest entertainment platforms in the mobile internet, conducted a study that dives deep into the data, finding virtual spending on some random 40,000 mobile social gamers. The study focused on ethnicity and revealed top virtual spenders:

1. 1.    African-Americans: this group has topped the list with an overall share of 38%
2. 2.    Caucasians: are in second place with a fraction of 26% in spending for virtual goods
3. 3.    Hispanics: Latinos came in close third with 21% share
4. 4.    Asian-Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders: having 4% apiece, this cluster summed up to 12% shares

Virtual goods are anything from gift cards, rewards, war weapons, power, farm equipment to more energy and many more. While these may be intangible, they have become a part of our social realms.  MocoSpace CEO Justin Siegel sees this crossover saying, “Virtual goods have now become such a mainstream business that it makes sense to really start segmenting it.

“We’ve started to sort our data by a number of criteria, including ethnicity and gender. Over time, this sort of information will change how mobile game developers and publishers create content and market their titles, something that is already happening in console and online gaming industry.”

If you think that virtual goods are some freaks’ business, think again.  Billion dollar online gaming company Zynga is one of the hottest in the tech industry, and they achieved this status by means of selling things that do not actually exist.  It also helps that Zynga has an expansive presence on Facebook— the premier social networking site in the planet that records more than $12 million dollars in PayPal payments monthly, for gaming alone.

Even with piracy souring the global market, virtual goods remain one of the formidable anchors of today’s online trade.  Subsequently, another industry is being pulled up by the popularity of mobile social gaming—mobile payments. This sector is also predicted to attract billions in revenue.

Demographic studies are most significant to both social and mobile advertising. The results provide the companies better insights on their target market, strengths, areas for improvement and potential customers. To add to this is man’s innate love for competition and collaboration as seen in the explosion of mobile social gaming.