In 2001 I created a virtual pet site at AdoptMe.com, where kids can adopt free virtual pets (dogs, cats, horses, fish, etc.) and learn the responsibilities of pet ownership by feeding, walking and taking care of their pets. It quickly became popular, with around 10,000 visitors per day and 2000 new members per day, but I had zero revenue from it because the site was designed in Flash and there was not really much space for ads on it, plus back then there were a lot fewer choices when it came to putting ads on a site.
One idea I had to make money was to sell an AdoptMe stuffed animal (they now call them “plush toys”) in toy stores, where the plush toy would look just like the virtual pet the user adopted so they could play with the same pet both online and offline. The toy box would have an ID code on it that the buyer could enter on the AdoptMe website to adopt the virtual version of the exact pet they bought. But, at the time I was overloaded just running websites and had no interest in doing any business that was non-virtual.
I happened to mention all of this to the person who setup my California office for me (the place I had never been to and where I have never met any of the employees) and he thought I was crazy for not trying to do more with AdoptMe.com so he offered to setup a partnership to handle the toy part of the business for me. Since I had nothing to lose because I was never going to do it myself, I agreed.
To make a long story short, it did not go too well. The good thing is that eventually we did get some plush toys manufactured (in China) and we started selling them at the AdoptMe.com website. I don’t remember the exact figures, but our cost was around $2.00 per animal and we sold them for $14.95. We sold around 1 a day, which was fine, but our goal was to get them in stores to sell millions and get rich. We got some sold in some small local stores and eventually, after a huge amount of negotiations, we were able to convince Toys “R” Us to test the AdoptMe plush toy in their stores. Originally they were going to do a big test in 60 stores, but in the end they just placed an order for their Times Square NY store. This was one of their busiest stores, so it was a good place to test it at least. The AdoptMe toys ended up selling pretty well, considering we did no promotion for them other than advertising on the Adotpme.com website. But, in order for Toys “R” Us to continue selling a product in that small high traffic Times Square store, it has to be a big hit, and our toy was not.
This is a photo of the product in Toys “R” Us: in Times Square
We could have tried to get the toy sold in other stores, but at this point 3 years had gone by and it was not making money, and product liability insurance alone for the toy cost $800/month, plus the cost of an employee and office suite, so we decided to dissolve the toy company.
Now many years later, Webkinz is doing the same exact thing we did and making millions of dollars doing it. Maybe we were just ahead of our time. I still own the AdoptMe.com website which is doing well, and overall I am happy I was at least able to give the toy business a try even though it did not end up making any money for me.
nice post – i never understood how sites become popular so quickly? di dyou do press releases or did you get a couple of visitors that started to tell their friends about it? thanks
No, I hardly ever do press releases. No, I don’t get a lot of traffic from people telling their friends. It mostly is from search engines.
– Eric
Eric,
I have been reading your stories and it appears that you are person that likes to takes risks based on opportunities. I have a couple of opportunities that you may be interested in.
Visit Joinmyblog.com and read the ones involving new phone service and joinwhatever.com. I have a few others that I working on.
Rafael
I took a look, and your ideas sound good, but I am not looking to do any partnerships or investments, and as you can see from my latest post, I have more than enough of my own business ideas already. I just don’t have the time and energy to do them all.
I have another toys in my mind, models of machines :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWRyYYX7JxE
Your innovative vision for AdoptMe.com shines through your story! Despite challenges, your willingness to explore new ideas is inspiring. Your legacy lives on, reminding us that success often comes from daring to venture into the unknown. Keep shining with AdoptMe.com, bringing joy and learning to children worldwide.
Hi Eric,
Great post — AdoptMe was clearly way ahead of Webkinz with the plush + virtual pet + ID code concept.
Quick question: your former partner on the toy side (James Filbird?) has been publicly claiming that the AdoptMe concept was stolen by Ganz through a fake business deal. Did anything like that actually happen? Or did the toy company just wind down naturally as you described here?
Just trying to separate fact from fiction. Thanks!
Hi Eric,
Great post — AdoptMe was clearly way ahead of Webkinz with the plush + virtual pet + ID code concept.
Quick question: your former partner on the toy side (James Filbird?) has been publicly claiming that the AdoptMe concept was stolen by Ganz through a fake business deal. Did anything like that actually happen? Or did the toy company just wind down naturally as you described here?
Just trying to separate fact from fiction. Thanks!
I never heard the details about how Jim (as part of Adopt Me Toys) was ripped off, I just knew generally some bad deals happened that he was involved in. I was mainly focused on the AdoptMe.com website part of it. For whatever reasons there were lots of delays in getting the toy product to market and lots of extra expenses, and we could not keep funding it (paying Jim a salary was the largest ongoing expense) so that was one reason my partner and I eventually shut it down. Maybe if Jim was not ripped off things would have gone differently. I started the AdoptMe.com virtual pets website by myself in 2000 before I started working with Jim; he was not involved at all in launching the AdoptMe.com website, only with the toys which were conceived of later. Jim was brought aboard to lead the toy part of the project and subsequently he owned a small amount of equity in Adopt Me Toys, Inc., which was dissolved in 2005 (I then kept running AdoptMe.com like I always had). Anyhow, I assume from his point of view, as he was the one running the toy business, whatever happened afterwards, in terms of Webkinz making a big success out of something similar, he seems to have taken it very personally. I have not talked to Jim since 2006 or 2007, but I did know at that time he was working on toy ventures in China.
From what I can tell (via some Google searching), Neopets.com started selling plush toys with a virtual item code in 2001, see https://merch.jellyneo.net/merch-guides/plushies/home/, so as far as I know, Adopt Me did not invent that concept. But, we were one of the first companies to do it, and ahead of our time. Webkinz became a huge hit very soon after we shut down Adopt Me Toys.
I’m not sure what Filbird said is true or false. But I think, even If Ganz have plagiarized, AdopteMe will never state it without crucial evidence, because that would be defamation
I have no information about this, other than what Jim is saying now about it now, so I can’t comment on if it is true or not. I just know some bad deals happened, but I don’t know any of the specifics and have not talked to Jim in almost 20 years.