I think that IMVU has been changing its strategy a lot over the past ten years. At first, they were primarily selling credits and avatar names. The would give you a few fake credits and items when you'd register to get you hooked. And then they'd make you pay for certain privileges like owning your avatar name (which was, at the time, the only requirement to be allowed to gain creator status) or having a verified adult status. Given that users who create most of the virtual items for imvu were not only paying to create (the name plus credits for each product submission) but were not paid in return by IMVU, all the credits bought by the entire community + the various privileges were enough to keep them afloat for a while… Until some popular creators realized they were earning way more credits than what they needed to invest in new products. Credits were piling up in their accounts with no purpose… These creators decided to get in the reseller business off site… It lasted for a while and made staff not so happy. Indeed, customers who came to play could buy cheaper credits and creators could actually convert their useless extra credits into well deserved cash. This meant people were buying less from IMVU. They turned things around, crusing the reseller businesses and hurting the modest creators in the process by making it impossible to send big credits amounts. They also managed to calm the creator community (or what was left of it) by saying they would pay cash to those who wanted it. Only they implemented a compulsory waiting period and a cash minimum that you need to get before you can claim it and get paid for your sales. That was more money in their pockets but they also decided that newcomers who wanted to create needed a subscription. They are inventing stuff everyday to try and force people to spend money. They try putting all sorts of stuff into imvu which have very little to do with the real user base and it's interests. They are now (because of the frenzy of changes) attracting new customers who are confused as to what imvu really is about. Some think it's a game, others mistake it for a dating app… It's also selling virtual music… yup… Everything and anything… That's how IMVU makes money.
