GP3 consists of two partner categories:
Content Provider – Content is created and sold within GoPets that generates revenue (shells) for the content owner. This content is typically a game.
Affiliate – Companies interested in distributing GoPets and participating in user acquisition.

GP3 will continue to evolve and if you feel you are interested in participating but do not fit into one of our current partner categories, please contact us!

The obvious examples are folks like a casual game company who distribute their existing games to GoPets users. They have created compelling content at their own expense and have chosen to distribute them to the GoPets users. We also consider companies with consumer brands who create items inside of the GoPets world as another form of content. Also, developers who use the GoPets API who extend the experience of GoPets are also content providers.

The unifying element is that Content Providers assume the effort and cost to create the content and it is up to the users of GoPets to decide if the content is compelling enough to purchase with the GoPets Gold Shells. All Content Providers enjoy 50% of the Net Revenue determined by the actual Gold Shell purchases of their content after accounting for:

A. VAT, payment systems - variable
B. GoPets Operations - capped at 10% net after (a)

An Affiliate is anyone who directly introduces a new user to the World of GoPets. An Affiliate may be a user who has told a few friends of their new experience, or a maven with a highly successful website able to reach thousands of users; to a large internet-based media company with an existing user base in the millions.

Affiliates are free to use a wide range of tools from GoPets such as banner links, the Pet Gadget and customized emails to register users in the World of GoPets. An Affiliate is limited only by their resources and energy as to how much they put into reaching users.

All users when they land at the GoPets landing page are linked with the source Affiliate when using the Affiliate Links (see www.gopets.net/XXXX for more information). Users who discover GoPets from reading a press article or simply by performing their own internet search are considered a GoPets internally sourced user.

The Affiliate enjoys a net revenue share for a term of 365 days from the date of registration that ranges from 5% to 50% as determined by the total spending of the user regardless of whether the user is purchasing Gold Shells or Premium Service plans. This is contrast to Content Providers who earn revenue only on direct Gold Shell purchases of their content.

There is a tiered program for Affiliates that ranges proportionally to the amount of resources and energy that an Affiliate is expending in the process of introducing new users to GoPets:

Net Revenue for Affiliates is defined as Gross Revenue less the following costs:

C. VAT, payment systems - variable
D. GoPets Operations - capped at 10% net after (a)
E. Content Providers – 50%

Example Scenario:

Jessica is an English teacher in Japan. She sees an editorial about GoPets on a top social networking site in Japan and has clicked on an Affiliate Labeled link to join GoPets.

During the course of one year with GoPets she spends 4,000¥ (approx. $40 USD) in the form of a 995¥ Premium Service and the balance of 3,000¥ in Gold Shells. She received 125 Gold Shells from the Premium Service plan and approximately 400 Gold Shells from direct purchases resulting in a total of 525 Gold Shells.

Over the course of the year she spends 200 Gold Shells on 3rd party games and other forms of content. The rest of her shells (325) she spends directly on GoPets content.

Who got how much of her money?

The convenient store charges approximately 6% to handle the cash transaction from her purchases. So they take 240¥ (or about $2.40).

The Japanese government imposes a 10% VAT. We do not get paid directly from a user, but rather from the payment service provider – thus we need to pay 10% of 4,000¥ . This results in 400¥ (or $4) going to the Japanese government.

Now we have 3,360¥ (or $33.6) to divide between the Affiliate, the 3rd party games providers and GoPets:

From here forward we will internally convert to USD for simplicity.

First we must cover the core costs of the GoPets Operations. This includes paying for the servers, the bandwidth, the electricity, rack space as well as the system engineers and customer service folks to run these operations 24x7x365. To account for this we subtract 10% from the $33.6 or $3.36 to GoPets Operations leaving a balance of: $30.24.

Next are the 3rd party games. To calculate the net shell value we take the net revenue this user has produced to this point $30.24 and divide by her total number of shells she has purchased 525. This results in a net average shell value of 5.76 cents a shell.

200 Gold shells at an average of 5.76 cents each results in a net revenue of $11.52 to be split 50% with the content provider. In other words the 3rd party game provider will take $5.76 of Jessica Smith’s money.

Starting with $30.24 and subtracting out the $5.76 to the 3rd party game Content Provider leaves us with $24.48 to be split with that top social networking site in Japan. We might as well think optimistically and assume that being a top social networking site in Japan that has taken a look over our Affiliate Program that they have decided to include GoPets single-sign-on technology and have effectively attached a GoPets account to each of their users’ existing accounts. Further, they have spent time creating a special new user area full of branded items and finally have staffed that area with some orientation and greeters to make it a truly quality experience for the new user.

The result of these efforts is that they are regularly enjoying the 50% net revenue split that comes at the Platinum Tier level. Thus the $24.48 will be split by 50%, resulting in $12.24 going to the social networking site and GoPets keeping the remaining $12.24.

Here is a recap of what happened to Jessica Smith’s $40:

*200 out of 525 Gold Shells is 38.1%

There is no way around VAT or Sales Taxes and as a good corporate citizen we of course participate fully with the taxation customs of all the world’s countries. In addition, we feel that we should make the World of GoPets as broadly available to users as possible.

To be broadly available we must provide easy to use payment systems in the form of credit cards, direct bank transfers, pre-paid retail cards, mobile payment, land line or just about any other payment option that reaches the users.

The cost of these payment options vary widely. Naturally for retail based payment options such as pre-paid cards there is a normal markup for the retailer that must be accommodated. In the mobile space we are currently seeing very large commissions ranging from a low of 11% in some Asian territories to a high of 50% in some Western Territories. We are confident that we will all enjoy the results of competition between the mobile carriers that will drive down the cost of the mobile payment option.

To operate GoPets we must lease servers and rack space from a hosting company, purchase bandwidth and electricity as well as pay for customer service and system engineering staff to be sure that the World of GoPets has high-levels of performance and that the all users’ questions and issues may be handled as swiftly as possible. We are confident that all GoPets Partners will be satisfied that we are delivering this collection of services at a very competitive cost.

It is a slightly involved process, but essentially we use the average price paid per shell on your content for that time period. For content providers in the less than $10,000 a month revenue bracket we use the total GoPets-wide average cash per shell paid. For Content Providers above this threshold we perform a deeper analysis to determine which payment systems and territories are really behind your sales to create the most accurate revenue recognition possible.

GoPets provides an on-line accounting tool that allows each GoPets Partner to view the activity in their account current up to the previous complete 24 hour day in Seoul, Korea. This reporting tool provides daily, weekly, monthly and year to date measurement of both the Affiliate and the Content Provider revenue in one tool. This is the same tool that will generate the revenue sharing payments.

GoPets pays Partners each month, not quarterly. However, different forms of payment system operators have different payment schedules as per the nature of their market; as a result we will actually release payment at the end of the following month that we receive the payment from the various payment operators.

For Affiliates and Content Providers that are generating under $10,000 per month in revenue we will issue payment directly to a PayPal account that you designate. For GoPets Partners with greater than this revenue per month, direct wire transfer is available.

GoPets is a wholesome world that is meant to be enjoyed by users of all ages. To protect children under the age of 13 we simply do not allow registration without the parent. For teenagers ages 13 to 17 we turn off the social networking features also as a form of protection. The art quality of the world is something we take pride in and work very hard to keep finding ways to make it the best experience possible for our users. The result of this is that GoPets always reserves the right to remove content that is determined to be inappropriate and we reserve the right to make that judgment at our sole discretion. However, our user base is our central concern and as such we will take any complaints concerning content very seriously and swiftly review items from such a complaint. Please take your time to familiarize yourself with the art style and the feeling of the World of GoPets before adding content to GoPets. If you have any doubt if your content will be rejected it might be best to send an inquiry email to content@gopets.net for an informal review.

Custom Items falls under the Content Provider category. However, creating custom items where you completely own the license to create and distribute such works inside of GoPets worldwide is a fundamental requirement. You cannot make a T-Shirt featuring a brand you do not own the rights and try to pull cash out of the GoPets World.

Gopets abides by the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). For complete details, please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA

We have strong feelings about brands, advertising and the user experience at GoPets. We are very careful in selecting what brands and how these brands are displayed inside of GoPets. We do not allow advertisement for Tobacco, Alcohol, Firearms, or Pharmaceutical products at all.

We also feel that people are now over-exposed to advertisement and are growing very weary of being bombarded every day with hundreds if not thousands of messages. As a result, we have created this platform for Brand managers to create clothing, food, toys, houses, vehicles, and whole villages and towns for users to interact with and truly experience the brand that is first of all fun for the user and much more meaningful of a brand interaction for the advertiser.

We carry this philosophy so far that we have decided to consider that any advertisement that is worthy of being placed in the World of GoPets as Content and not an Ad. This is a radical proposition from us. We will not charge you to display your Ad inside of GoPets. Rather, it is up to you to use the custom creation tools that we have provided to create the experiences and set the prices in Gold Shells (or alternatively if you are not concerned about revenue generation, feel free to set the prices in Green or Pink Shells) and appeal directly to the users and enjoy a net revenue split after the hard costs of GoPets but before Affiliates and the GoPets Margin.

You could select a contractor of your choice to create these items for you. For texture work, simply use the Customs Creations Tool available to all of our users who purchase Premium Service Membership. For the more involved cases of new 3D meshes or custom designed experiences GoPets has the ability to create this on a work for hire basis. In addition we look forward to helping foster a marketplace between independent artists familiar with our 3D mesh standards and Content Providers with brands they wish to see realized inside of GoPets.