Gaia is NOT in the red.

[O.T.L.]

jaggedbubbles

According to Sherman, Gaia costs $25million a year to maintain, and they only make $1million a month.

Now, I can't seem to verify any of that, since they don't seem to be a publicly traded corporation (therefore no public financial statements). While this may have been true at one point in Gaia's online career, I sincerely doubt it's the case now. Until they go public (and have records of their tax filing at the SEC), I don't believe a word of it.

Yeah, I wouldn't believe it, either. There is simply no way a company that costs $25 million a year to run can lose $13 million a year and still stay operational. NO ONE is going to loan them money or extend them credit, and without that, they're not paying their bills (or employees, for that matter), because there's simply no way they'll ever be able to pay it back with losses that huge. There is no way those figures are even remotely accurate.  

[[ .NK. ]]

jaggedbubbles

According to Sherman, Gaia costs $25million a year to maintain, and they only make $1million a month.

Now, I can't seem to verify any of that, since they don't seem to be a publicly traded corporation (therefore no public financial statements). While this may have been true at one point in Gaia's online career, I sincerely doubt it's the case now. Until they go public (and have records of their tax filing at the SEC), I don't believe a word of it.

That is a load of crap. Lanzer himself said that Gaia costs roughly $1.5 million a month. That's only $18,000,000, which, in my opinion, is still entirely too damn much.
But I digress.
Based on my research in the first post, they make $700,000 a month in profit. At the end of the year, that's $8,400,000 profit. That kind of profit should easily cover money needed to start new projects.
Perhaps that $25 million a year includes fees required for new projects, but at this point there's too much information flying around and I don't know what's accurate anymore.

First of all, the article about Gaia making $1 million a month is inaccurate, as the items they're listing as Gaia's cash-based virtual goods are actually gold items.

Gaia gets most of its $1 million monthly revenue from players who buy virtual goods ranging from puppy ears to lightning bolts to something called a "coal tavern wench's bustier."

Secondly, Mr. Sherman's comment directly clashes with what this article says, and what the zOMG mini page (that openly boasted about pulling in "well over $1million a month in virtual items sales alone") used to say.

And finally, O.T.L. is absolutely right. Gaia would never have lasted this long if they were that in debt. Also, in the Snap! podcast interview with Mr. Sherman, I believe I recall him saying something about having lots of money stashed away for new projects or some such. I'll have to listen to it again to verify that though.  

[[ .NK. ]]

G-corp defense

hi was just browsing and i tried a site to check the net worth its very intriguing thought you may be interested

Net Worth : $2.72 Million Last updated 8 Days ago
Daily Pageview : 1240135
Daily Ads Revenue : $3722.85

http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.gaiaonline.com

so in a month there making 60,000 from random ads alone
eek
i don't think they are in the red do you?

Huh, that's interesting. Earlier this year I went to the same website you used, and I bookmarked the page. When I click the bookmark, it shows me the information that you currently have, but the name of the bookmark still says "gaiaonline.com Estimated Worth $5.45 Million USD by websiteoutlook".

Back then their ad revenue was roughly $6,000 a month. And just look, their estimated worth has dropped by nearly $3 million. D:  

[the thief-G]

that's just on how many people click the links is how it estimates the revenue  

[[ .NK. ]]

G-corp defense

that's just on how many people click the links is how it estimates the revenue

Exactly. My point is that it's gone down drastically, though.  

[Flying Dicks]

Probably due to all the malware and crap in their ads. People are stupid, but eventually they'll wise up if given the chance  

[[ .NK. ]]

Good. If they're not going to sort out the ad problem, they deserve that drastic drop.  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

Hmmm...

So let's see...according to all these calculations, they're handling this worse than the US government handled their money before the housing market went down. Gaia is making every crucial mistake in over speculation with the EI's pumping out and such.

But....

I have a sneaking suspicion that Craig Sherman might be lying about it and pushing Lanzer aside with his so-called "buisness expertise" and suckering even the higher ups that there's money issues. As seen from the original thread, dev's couldn't agree on where Gaia was as far as money-some said they were fine, some said they were in some profit making and yet others said they were in the red....

I guess we need to know exactly what kind of servers they run and how much that costs. Does anyone know about that?

But honestly, I really think Sherman's pocketing more money than we might think....  

[Andromeda Phoenix]

I don't have any references, but wasn't Sherman the CEO of some other company that went bankrupt or something before coming to Gaia or something like that?

ninja I just remembered that when the cash shop came out, quite a few staff members said it wasn't about getting out of the red, but rather it was that "They deserved to have a bit more pocket money". Unfortunately, I don't have any references of that. *headdesk* I need to start taking a log of everything Devs say. xd  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

OKya , well, I'm going out really far on a limb here, and yes, I know it may seem a bit off topic but I swear it relates:

Craig Sherman graduated magna c** laude from Princeton University. He did so-in East Asian Studies. Now, supposedly, this came off of the whole living in Japan interest that he might have had but...

AIG is a company that is going bankrupt, from what I heard. And Craig Sherman ran the Korean/Japanese part of it, supposedly making huge profits and making Japan's AIG the #1 insurance company. Statistics and such for all my info, btw, is from here Granted, it was back in 1999 so it might not hold much relevance.

Ummm, and what's Lanzer's ethnicity? East Asian from what I've seen of him? (is he Chinese, because he looks Chinese...Or maybe something else? If anyone knows, tell me) Don't jump down my throat about it though, I'm not trying to be racist but this is a rather strange connection, seeing as how Sherman had been driven by mostly East Asian based companies and Gaia, to my knowledge, is not.

And yes, yes, I'm getting to relevancy of all this information. So then, if he's been able to pull an obscure website MyFamily.com out of sever losses, how is that not happening here on Gaia? Because apparently, he's Mr. Miracle worker, but he's been here three years and no miracles, according to staff. Yet with a few other companies, sans MyFamily, he was able to turn them a huge profit in less time. So what exactly is going on here...?  

[kikirin~sakyomi]

Okay, WHOA, I found some new disturbing info.It talks about the profits he made during the time people kept saying that Gaia was in the red....

I don't know if this might be relevent in any way to NK's argument, but it certainly drives a suspicious eye onto him.  

[O.T.L.]

kikirin~sakyomi

Okay, WHOA, I found some new disturbing info.It talks about the profits he made during the time people kept saying that Gaia was in the red....

I don't know if this might be relevent in any way to NK's argument, but it certainly drives a suspicious eye onto him.

Not really related, but this quote deserves some attention (from page 4 of the interview):

Quote:

So far our philosophy is, and I think it'll last for a while, is to focus on independent economy from the real world because our core principle is to be a free and fair experience. What I mean by "fair" is it shouldn't matter if you grow up in Greenwich, Conn., or the Bronx. You come to Gaia, and you're equal. You both have a chance wherever you grew up, wherever you come from, to get rich, or to create a meaningful role and experience.

Uh-huh. Sure. That's why, if you can afford Gaia Cash, you can be a Gaia millionaire in an hour, right? Ye gods, I'm really starting to dislike this schmuck.  

[[ .NK. ]]

O.T.L.

kikirin~sakyomi

Okay, WHOA, I found some new disturbing info.It talks about the profits he made during the time people kept saying that Gaia was in the red....

I don't know if this might be relevent in any way to NK's argument, but it certainly drives a suspicious eye onto him.

Not really related, but this quote deserves some attention (from page 4 of the interview):

Quote:

So far our philosophy is, and I think it'll last for a while, is to focus on independent economy from the real world because our core principle is to be a free and fair experience. What I mean by "fair" is it shouldn't matter if you grow up in Greenwich, Conn., or the Bronx. You come to Gaia, and you're equal. You both have a chance wherever you grew up, wherever you come from, to get rich, or to create a meaningful role and experience.

Uh-huh. Sure. That's why, if you can afford Gaia Cash, you can be a Gaia millionaire in an hour, right? Ye gods, I'm really starting to dislike this schmuck.

Actually, it's completely related.

I agree. It's gotten to where, honestly, I can't really tolerate reading interviews about Gaia anymore, regardless of who is doing them.
Granted, it's good business model to make your company seem awesome and like what people want to be a part of, but I'm just so sick of their constant lies, and that one above is just...lasjl;sdjasd. It pissed me off.

Blatant, blatant, blatant lie.  

[QuestionableMeatProducts]

[ .NK. ]

O.T.L.

kikirin~sakyomi

Okay, WHOA, I found some new disturbing info.It talks about the profits he made during the time people kept saying that Gaia was in the red....

I don't know if this might be relevent in any way to NK's argument, but it certainly drives a suspicious eye onto him.

Not really related, but this quote deserves some attention (from page 4 of the interview):

Quote:

So far our philosophy is, and I think it'll last for a while, is to focus on independent economy from the real world because our core principle is to be a free and fair experience. What I mean by "fair" is it shouldn't matter if you grow up in Greenwich, Conn., or the Bronx. You come to Gaia, and you're equal. You both have a chance wherever you grew up, wherever you come from, to get rich, or to create a meaningful role and experience.

Uh-huh. Sure. That's why, if you can afford Gaia Cash, you can be a Gaia millionaire in an hour, right? Ye gods, I'm really starting to dislike this schmuck.

Actually, it's completely related.

I agree. It's gotten to where, honestly, I can't really tolerate reading interviews about Gaia anymore, regardless of who is doing them.
Granted, it's good business model to make your company seem awesome and like what people want to be a part of, but I'm just so sick of their constant lies, and that one above is just...lasjl;sdjasd. It pissed me off.

Blatant, blatant, blatant lie.

ugh... it's bullshit like that what makes my stomach curdle like 3-months-past milk. This guy is a schmuck through and through. How the hell did he get hired, again?  

[Siarnaq]

Yamato1

[ .NK. ]

O.T.L.

kikirin~sakyomi

Okay, WHOA, I found some new disturbing info.It talks about the profits he made during the time people kept saying that Gaia was in the red....

I don't know if this might be relevent in any way to NK's argument, but it certainly drives a suspicious eye onto him.

Not really related, but this quote deserves some attention (from page 4 of the interview):

Quote:

So far our philosophy is, and I think it'll last for a while, is to focus on independent economy from the real world because our core principle is to be a free and fair experience. What I mean by "fair" is it shouldn't matter if you grow up in Greenwich, Conn., or the Bronx. You come to Gaia, and you're equal. You both have a chance wherever you grew up, wherever you come from, to get rich, or to create a meaningful role and experience.

Uh-huh. Sure. That's why, if you can afford Gaia Cash, you can be a Gaia millionaire in an hour, right? Ye gods, I'm really starting to dislike this schmuck.

Actually, it's completely related.

I agree. It's gotten to where, honestly, I can't really tolerate reading interviews about Gaia anymore, regardless of who is doing them.
Granted, it's good business model to make your company seem awesome and like what people want to be a part of, but I'm just so sick of their constant lies, and that one above is just...lasjl;sdjasd. It pissed me off.

Blatant, blatant, blatant lie.

ugh... it's bullshit like that what makes my stomach curdle like 3-months-past milk. This guy is a schmuck through and through. How the hell did he get hired, again?

That's what I want to know. neutral