Neopets, Inc.

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Neopets, Inc.
Type	Subsidiary (Owned by Viacom)
Founded	February, 2000
Headquarters	Glendale, California, USA
Key people	Kyra Reppen, Senior VP, General Manager Doug Dohring, CEO Lee Borth, COO Adam Powell, Creative Director/Founder Donna Williams, Creative Director/Founder Rik Kinney, Executive VP Stephanie Yost Cameron, General Counsel & Executive VP Tad Czyzewski, CFO Billy Shum, President Bill McCaffrey, CTO Jeff Snetiker, Senior VP Joshua A. O. Strathman
Industry	Internet
Revenue	$30 million USD+
Employees	150+
Website	www.neopets.com

Neopets, Inc. is the company that owns the popular online-based virtual pet game, Neopets (under Viacom since 2005). The site was made on November 15, 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. The company itself was founded in February of 2000 by Doug Dohring.

Contents 1 Company information 1.1 Scientology business model 2 Merchandise 3 References

[edit] Company information

In May 2000, Nielsen//NetRatings reported that people were spending around three hours a month on Neopets, more than any other site in its Nielsen category.^[1] By May 2005, a Neopets-affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of the users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14.^[2] More recently, in 1 August 2006 Neopets reported over 136 million accounts and over 200 million pets (each account can have a maximum of 4 pets and some users have several accounts). Updated statistics may be found on the Neopets "Pet Central" Page.^[3]

Although the company is based in California, its founders are British and the site retains British English spellings (though there are some exceptions). In addition to English, as of July 2006 the site is available translated (with varying degrees of completeness) into ten other languages: Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese-simplified, Chinese-traditional, Japanese and Korean. Neopets Inc. also operates an Asian branch, Neopets Asia, which is partially owned by Green Dot Capital.^[4]

On June 20, 2005, Viacom stated that it had bought Neopets, Inc. in a deal that has been valued at approximately $160 million.^[5] According to Viacom, Dohring, the current CEO of Neopets, Inc., along with other Neopets, Inc. senior managers, will continue to hold their positions after the acquisition has been completed. After being bought by Viacom, it was then handed over to MTV.^[6]

[edit] Scientology business model

In a December, 2005 feature story in Wired magazine, Doug Dohring, explains how he brought the Scientology business model, known as the "Org Board" and created by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, to Neopets. Dohring had previously used Hubbard's business "technology" or "Admin Tech", as it is termed, to catapult his Dohring Company to one of the largest market research firms in the United States. While Hubbard claimed that the Org Board was a refinement of one used by "an old Galactic civilization" that lasted 80 trillion years, according to Dohring it offered down-to-earth prescriptions for success. "He created a management technology that's very powerful," Dohring says. ^[7]

[edit] Merchandise

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, cereals, and video games. The merchandise retails at many mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Limited Too. There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as Zazzle. 99dogs was the first outlet for Neopets merchandise before being released to stores.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the Neopets Trading Card Game, a collectible card game, based on the online characters and setting. It is distributed by card shops, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. To date, there have been six individual "sets" of cards (a base set and five expansions) released, with the sixth set recently released. Most of the card releases are associated with "plots," or stories, on the site. This is another controversial marketing move, which has simultaneously managed to endear and estrange players from the site.

In March 2005, it was confirmed that the Neopets team had also begun work on a Neopets film (which the creators of the site had kept secret from their own staff until it was confirmed). When informing the users of this, they also implied that there might be more than one Neopets film in the future (although, of course, this will depend entirely on the success of their first film). On the description of the Jelly World game "Jelly Blobs of Doom", a movie is to be released Winter 2008^[8]; however, since the date on the page is pushed forward every time the previous date passes, this is more likely than not a joke.

In November 2005 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. released Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, for the PlayStation 2. A second game, Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing, was released March 14, 2006 for the PlayStation Portable.

A very popular form of merchandise for Neopets was their set of toys (along with a Trading Card Game card) in 2005 at McDonald's, which brought many people in to Neopets. A second release of Neopet toys occurred at McDonald's because of the success of the last promotion.^[9] These toys have been released in countries such as Australia, USA, Singapore and the U.K.

[edit] References

v • d • e Neopets Neopets.com Neopets • Neopets, Inc. Merchandise Trading Card Game • The Darkest Faerie • Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing • Neopets film • Codestone Quest