It's the icon that counts
Virtual gifts connect for a price
Joni Gleason of Haverhill spends about $100 a year on gifts for her pet-loving friends. But the gifts can't be held or wrapped. They can't even be seen unless her friends are online.
As a member of Dogster.com, Gleason, 62, sends fellow dog owners virtual candles and angel wings when their pets get sick or die. When Gleason feels playful, she sends virtual squirrels or, one of Dogster's newer gift options, a can of Spam.
Thanks to people like Gleason, social-networking websites, most of which are free to join, are estimated to be making millions of dollars a year from virtual gifts, small icons that can be purchased and sent between members.
The 750,000 members of Dogster.com and Catster.com can buy gifts for 25 cents to $5. Most gifts cost $1 on Facebook.com, which has more than 80 million active members who use the site to create profiles of themselves, communicate with friends, and post messages about their lives. Since Facebook launched the gift option in February 2007, more than 27 million gifts have been given. On Dogster and Catster, members bought 1.5 million gifts in past 12 months.
Unlike e-cards, these gifts, which are usually thumbnail-size graphic illustrations, become fixtures on people's profile pages. Gifts in the Facebook catalog include images of pints of beer, penguins, pretzels, and toilet paper rolls. Users can send them to friends privately, but most people keep them public as badges of honor - or connections. The gifts are sold in limited numbers to create demand. As of yesterday, there were about 40,000 of 50,000 espresso bean gifts left but only about 3,000 jacuzzis.
"It's like self-expression almost," said Jeff Clark, who works under the title "design evangelist" at Viximo, a Somerville company that's getting in on the gift action. "It's like a status symbol."
While Facebook stocks 370 virtual gifts in its "shop," it now allows outside companies to sell gifts through applications on the site. Viximo, which launched in May in Davis Square and employs 15 people, has been selling its gifts through an application that allows members to keep track of friends' birthdays and send virtual gifts to their Facebook profiles. Graphic artists across the country pitch Clark ideas for new gifts; a recent, popular addition was a tiny pickle. The more popular the gift, the more cash it makes.
Clark sees a huge market in virtual gift-giving among people in their teens and 20s. "The line is much thinner between their online and offline worlds," he said, adding that his 14-year-old sister has sent him virtual gifts, including a beach umbrella after he returned from a trip with a sunburn.
Of course, not everyone sees the value of a gift that doesn't actually exist.
"They're pretty stupid," said Beth Carey, 22, a recent Boston College graduate from Hingham. "People pay $1 to give their friends a picture of a weird animal or a drink. It's pretty pointless."
Most websites don't expect members to pay more than $1 for these presents, although Clark remembers being impressed by a $10 virtual rose on a dating site that members could send.
Even when gifts are offered for free, the sites make money.
When the "Sex and the City" movie was released, Facebook users could send their friends small, free "Sex" logos. Last week users could send images of characters from the film "WALL-E" at no charge. Those free gifts were underwritten by the film companies; Facebook members were essentially sending each other advertisements.
Lori Fauci, 27, of Springfield said she can't justify spending money on Facebook gifts, but she has sent them for free by getting credits in the virtual store for referring friends to the site. Recently she sent her sister a virtual bumper sticker that says "Always Sisters, Always Friends."
On Eons.com, a website for the Baby Boomer crowd, gifts are free, but users have to spend time on the site to earn points to buy them. The longer you're on the site, the more gifts you can give. The increase in traffic means more advertising dollars for the website.
Even though Eons' members grew up writing notes on paper, they've embraced the concept of online gifts and send icons as a means of flirting, marking important events, and even mourning, said Linda Natansohn, a senior vice president at the Charlestown-based site. When members die, their friends leave virtual flowers on their profile pages.
Popular presents in the Boomer community include pictures of lobster dinners and gardening tools. Some gifts have political messages, such as icons promoting green energy and recycling.
Members of Dogster and Catster also use gifts to flirt and commemorate. "They may not be something you can hold in your hand, but the sentiment that comes with giving or receiving, is the same sentiment," said Ted Rheingold, founder of Dogster and Catster.
That's why spending $100 a year on virtual gifts doesn't faze Gleason. She said the presents are as legitimate as the bonds she has formed online. "To us," she said, "they're real." 