Sparter
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Sparter was an online marketplace for virtual game currencies, launched in February 2007 and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners. It gave players of massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, EVE Online, and EverQuest a safe, open marketplace to buy and sell in-game gold and other virtual currencies for real-world money. The site sat in a controversial niche: real-money trading had been common since the emergence of major MMO games, but it was banned by eBay in 2007 and violated the terms of service of nearly every online game.
02 / Sparter FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Sparter was squeezed by the ecosystem it depended on. Real-money trading was against the terms of service of nearly every game it served, so the marketplace almost certainly folded under pressure from game developers - the fate its farewell note hinted at when it pivoted to 'marketplaces with the full support of game developers and publishers'. It also struggled to gain traction in a crowded field of countless virtual-gold vendors, never building enough volume to make the business work.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Marketplace launched
Sparter.com launched in February 2007, backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, as a safe and open marketplace for buyers and sellers of virtual currencies across many games and virtual worlds.
- Shutdown
In June 2008 Sparter announced it would stop taking new orders; after June 15, with in-progress PayPal and Alipay payments distributed, the site effectively shut down, pivoting its team toward developer-supported marketplaces instead.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Sparter announced in June 2008 that it would no longer take new orders, and the site was effectively stalled after June 15, 2008, with only in-progress transactions fulfilled.
- 02
No public disclosure of realized losses, debts, or creditor claims was found; the company was venture-backed by Bessemer Venture Partners but no funding total or loss figure was disclosed.