word spread as far as southern California, the home of Douglas who had for fourteen years run a market research company Dohnng, automakers. Dohring didn't see the site as that produced surveys for saw it as a fledgling infantile diversion for college students. children's brand that oftered numerous opportunities for making money, including market research, advertising, and product spin- off. "I saw it like Disney in the early days," he called in 2003, "You troduce characters in an entertainment m create a world de following, then create products to generate a business model. Dohring made Powell and Williams an offer for the operation reported as s 1.1 million-and shifted Neopets and its founders to Glendale, Los Angeles, Andrew and Donna were doing Neopets for their own enjoyment," Dohring said. "They didn't want to make a business out of it, but I talked them announcement to his staff early 2000, Dohring made an of instead car surveys he said, were now in Rik he they of names Executive vice president later said creatures with weird with Dohring, the who had started the research company down had been stunned by the announcement. Dohring played mar- shift, saying it fitted in with his general move to conduct more ket research online, where it was far cheaper than over the phone The privately held Dohring Company said Neopets was prof. itable within three months and grossed S6 million by the end of 2000, by 2005, the company claimed more than 75 million people(most of them children, but not all) had created their own pet. the How does it make money? It is free to users-at least, free in sense they don't have to pay anything to create a pet and enjoy the site. They pay by unwittingly volunteering to take part in interac- tive advertisements, an innovation Dohring even trademarked as immersive advertising," described on the Neopets site thus: TISH the"Neopets' Immersive Advertising programs are successful because members interact directly with the advertiser's product, which is embedded within the customized site content.