Virtual Economy of Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year) in Ameba pigg

In Japan, New Year's Eve and New Year holidays are biggest event in a year. It is similar in the virtual world.
CygerAgent's virtual world "Ameba Pigg [J]" sold a lot of virtual goods on the end of the year and the beginning of the year.

The Japanese eats "Toshikoshi-soba" on the night of the New Year's Eve. (soba is thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour)

CyberAgent sold 150,000 virtual goods of this Toshikoshi-soba in Ameba Pigg. However, this doesn't become the profit of CyberAgent because it was sold with a free virtual currency.

On the other hand, the Fukubukuro's profit is awesome!

Fukubukuro is the bag which unknown items were filled with. They are sold with a discount price than the actual value. The Japanese purchases these at various shops on New Year.
CygerAgent sold virtual Fukubukuro limited quantity only 2011 pieces. There were only female avatar's items in them. However, virtual Fukubukuro were sold out in several hours on January 1.
The price of this virtual Fukubukuro was 2011 yen each. Then …

2011×2011=4,044,121 yen!! (about 48,000 USD)

It's almost the same as the profit of real Fukubukuro.

In addition, 18 kinds of Oshogatsu(Japanese New Year) virtual goods were very popular, too.

These Oshogatsu virtual goods were sold about 480,000 during January 3, 2011 from December 31, 2010.
The most popular item of them was "Kadomatsu".

"Kadomatsu" is a traditional Japanese decoration of the New Year. It's made from bamboo, pine, straw and plum. Any home decorated the entrance with it in old days.
Virtual Kadomatsu was 200 yen, and they were sold about 16,000!

200×16,000=3,200,000 yen!! (about 3,8000 USD)

These Oshogatsu items are becoming outdated in the real world. However, they are still popular in the virtual world.

According to CyberAgent, about 2.4M users logged in to Ameba Pigg for a period of January 3 from December 31. This number is almost equal to real world's "Hatsumode(first Shinto shrine visit of the New Year)".

Current Ameba Pigg have more 5M users. The women are 65% and men are 35%.