New Platform Lets Friends Share Virtual World Experiences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - April 3, 2008) -

NEWS FACTS

Strategic interactive agency Blast Radius has created an in-world social entertainment dashboard for Doppelganger, for its virtual world, vSide. Blast Radius developed the new dashboard with Doppelganger so that visitors aren't forced to move between the world and the Web to catch up with their friends. Previously, vSiders could only communicate and share their latest news and events through vSide forums, third party social networks and traditional email.

vSide is an immersive social experience that is a place for teens to party online. Stylish and richly designed, the site focuses on music, entertainment and fashion. vSide users create their own experiences with a unique mix of user-created entertainment and professionally programmed content.

Through three-dimensional avatars, teens are empowered to express themselves with a wide range of emotions and personas. The dashboard provides yet another way that vSiders users can share how they are feeling, promote the new music and fashions they love and showcase their in-world personal residences. Key features of the dashboard include:

• Profile building — Create a profile that expresses who you are and what you love about vSide.
• Profile searching — Build your network by searching for in-world friends. It is also possible to locate your friends in-world then instantly join them.
• Dashboard — Know where your friends are in-world, what they are doing, what they are listening to and their latest fashions through real-time newsfeeds to your dashboard.
• Photo sharing — Did you hit a dance party last night? Share these experiences with your network by posting your favorite images.
• Event posting — There is always a party going on in vSide. The communications platform helps you keep your vSide social calendar in order and invite your friends to your next bash.

Understanding what makes vSide different from other virtual experiences, Blast Radius also worked with Doppelganger to rebrand the site. This includes the development of a new tagline, "vSide, Your Place to Party Online."

QUOTES
"Our work with Doppelganger is a new kind of partnership, and a perfect example of how Blast Radius is redefining what it means to be an interactive agency in a social media world. We are exploring new ways to build and create alongside our clients, adding value to their endeavors, while leaning on what we know best — creating engaging and meaningful interactions between companies and their consumers." - Gurval Caer, president and CEO, Blast Radius

"We partnered with Blast Radius to work with us to streamline our brand and create a smoother user experience. Blast Radius took that to the next level by helping to build the social entertainment dashboard, a powerful feature that makes vSide more than a virtual world — it's truly a social entertainment site built around common interests. The ideas and resulting product that Blast Radius brought to the table enable users to share and communicate in a way that is in line with our users' desires to fully represent their vSide lives and personalities." - Tim Stevens, president and CEO, Doppelganger

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger is a social entertainment company, and producer of the award winning vSide virtual world (www.vside.com). vSide is an immersive and connected virtual environment that complements and amplifies the interests of the youth demographic: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, communication, community and social networking. vSide makes it possible for media partners and brands to connect with this influential demographic in compelling and interactive new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world. Doppelganger is a privately held company with offices located in San Francisco, California.

About Blast Radius
Blast Radius is a strategic interactive agency that builds long term relationships with global consumer brands to deliver innovative and profitable customer experiences. It does this by combining business savvy, experience design, and industry-leading technologies - including its work with ATG as an accredited partner. With offices across North America and Europe, Blast Radius clients include BMW, EA, Jenny Craig, Newell Rubbermaid, Nike, Nintendo, Virgin and Vodafone.
Blast Radius is a member of the Wunderman Network and WPP Group.

Landmark Study Details Marketing ROI in Virtual Worlds

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 3, 2008 — Millions of Us LLC, an agency specializing in virtual worlds, today announced that it is spearheading an industry-wide group commissioning Forrester Consulting to conduct a study on marketing and engagement measurement in virtual worlds. The agency is collaborating with several leading virtual platform operators to facilitate the study, addressing a broad need to provide advertisers with objective third-party assessments of marketing ROI in this fast-growing new medium. Millions of Us' partners in this endeavor include Sulake, Gaia Interactive, Metaplace, SceneCaster, Doppelganger, Vivaty, and WeeWorld, with others expected to join.

"As we expanded our business to offer clients campaigns in the industry's top virtual worlds, it became increasingly apparent that large advertisers require clarity regarding user demographics and definitions of success," said Reuben Steiger, CEO of Millions of Us. "We've moved beyond the banner and need to work together to create a unified set of practices to quantify the value of engagement."

Companies in the virtual worlds industry have been able to provide advertising clients with sophisticated internal measurements of consumer response to virtual world marketing campaigns. However, with budgets for such campaigns rapidly expanding, such clients need to see standardized, credibly objective ROI assessments in order to justify growing expenditures. As the leading agency specializing in the space, Millions of Us is particularly well-placed to lead the industry in facilitating this study, which will be of ongoing use to the agency's platform partners and clients. The intended audience for this study will include Chief Marketing Officers and brand managers, advertising agencies, media buyers, and journalists covering the marketing and advertising industries.

The study will explore the thesis that the virtual worlds industry is beginning to mature and is no longer in the "experimental" phase of the marketing bell curve, and the need to quantify and measure the quality of "engagement" rather than CPMs (or cost per thousand "impressions").

"Habbo has provided over 200 advertisers and numerous celebrity visitors significant brand exposure in our growing global teen community, and we understand the need to set standards that clearly measure our influence," said Teemu Huuhtanen, executive VP, marketing, ad sales and business development, and president, North America, Sulake Inc, the parent company for Habbo. "Our deeply integrated in-game campaigns are the future of digital media advertising, marketing and promotion to the valuable teen demographic. We design our campaigns so the results are transparent and demonstrate effective ROI. We know what advertisers are looking for and what they qualify as success."

"With more than five million unique users a month, Gaia Online provides advertisers with powerful and innovative branding opportunities through unparalleled reach and engagement with the teen and young adult audience," said Scott Kinzie, vice president, creative and user experience, Gaia Interactive. "As this new marketing medium continues to grow and mature, we recognize the significance of providing a third party standardized framework to measure the power and influence of virtual worlds."

"Virtual worlds provide a completely new and deeply engaging way for brands to interact with consumers. For example, the ads themselves can become content that users interact with," said Lauren Bigelow, GM and SVP of Marketing, WeeWorld, Inc. "Brands and consumers are flocking to virtual worlds so the industry needs to take leadership in developing metrics that reflect the activity taking place. As a leader in the space, we are very excited to partner with Millions of Us on this landmark study."

"We're excited to engage with Forrester Consulting, Millions of Us and other virtual world platforms in this study", said Tim Stevens, CEO of Doppelganger, the creators of the award winning vSide virtual world. "This research effort will provide marketers with valuable new information to gauge the importance of consumer engagement in designing their campaigns."

"Virtual worlds are changing and the market is opening up to mainstream consumers and advertisers at an increasing rate. We're happy to participate in this study which provides much-needed real-world metrics for virtual worlds. Rich content like this will help potential advertisers better understand this market, unlock hidden value, and engage consumers in increasingly more meaningful ways," commented Raph Koster, founder and CEO of Metaplace.

The study is expected to be available to interested clients and media in June 2008.

About Millions of Us LLC
Millions of Us LLC is an agency specializing in virtual worlds and large online communities. The company offers clients the ability to combine the high engagement of virtual worlds with global reach through its partnerships with the world's leading virtual world platforms. Millions of Us also builds worlds from the ground up and creates alternate reality games. Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, the agency's clients include 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Toyota, Microsoft and Intel. For more information, visit www.millionsofus.com.

Doppelganger today announces its next generation social entertainment virtual world experience, vSide. vSide provides a real-time place for teens to interact with friends in a social context around their areas of interest; music, entertainment and fashion.

San Francisco, CA - April 3, 2008 - Doppelganger today announces its next generation social entertainment virtual world experience, vSide. Targeted for the 13-24 age demographic, vSide is "The Place to Party with Your Friends Online". This three-dimensional social entertainment platform, provides teens with a logical complement to their existing two-dimensional, text-based social networking pages on Facebook and MySpace. vSide provides a real-time place to interact with friends in a social context around their areas of interest; music, entertainment and fashion. vSide gives teens an engaging and interactive medium to express their creativity, test new identities and connect with their friends.
New users first experience vSide by entering the world via Gateway, the new-user orientation which showcases everything from dressing your avatar to moving about in- world, to furnishing your apartment. Once armed with this baseline understanding, users are primed to enjoy vSide's broad compilation of music, take in all the latest fashions from the hottest brands and party with friends in their own personal spaces.

Complementing the virtual world, vSide features its own complementary web experience developed in conjunction with strategic interactive agency Blast Radius. The web experience serves as a way for teens to communicate their in-world vSide activity to their friends and extend through their social network of choice, such as Facebook and MySpace. The web functionality empowers users to manage their in-world profiles, track currency, publish vSide photographs and more. In sum, the website provides users with the ability to manage and tout their vSide experience.

Key benefits of vSide:

Select and Design Your Apartment

• Select your very own apartment
• Decorate your apartment as you like
• Stream YouTube videos of your choice into your space
• Throw parties in your own apartment
• Acquire your very own yacht

Throw Your Own Party

• Throw a party in the privacy of your own place
• Play all your favorite music
  
• Announce it on your profile page
  
• Send friends invitations and reminders
  
• Post party details on other websites to show off and promote your party
  
• Enable friends to add comments after the event and post it on other social networks

Get the Hottest Goods

• Purchase items with real-world currency (vBux) or in-world credit (vPoints)
  
• Acquire all the gear to develop your avatar to your taste
  
• Choose from belts, necklaces, class rings and more

"vSide is all about having fun and expressing yourself - it is your place to party online. vSide stands alone as the new social entertainment virtual world platform for teens. In building vSide, we've simultaneously created an engaging new media platform for brands wishing to extend their presence with this trend-setting demographic," said Tim Stevens, president and CEO, Doppelganger.

"We couldn't be more excited about launching Degrassi: The Next Generation's presence in vSide later this month! A virtual version of The DOT Grill — so familiar to our show's viewers — will serve as the hub for all Degrassi-related activity in vSide," said Chris Jackson, Director of Digital Media and Merchandising, Epitome Pictures. "The notion that our fans will be able to interact with each other (and with our cast!) in vSide, while enjoying Degrassi video and music content makes vSide the perfect complement to Degrassi's existing on-screen and online presence. We're hoping that programming and event opportunities at The DOT Grill, in the virtual living spaces at The DOT Dorms, and elsewhere in vSide - coupled with user generated activity — will deepen our fans' connection to our show, while providing our broadcast and advertising partners new ways to engage such a critical demographic."

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger is a social entertainment company, and producer of the award winning vSide virtual world (www.vside.com). vSide is an immersive and connected virtual environment that complements and amplifies the interests of the youth demographic: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, communication, community and social networking. vSide makes it possible for media partners and brands to connect with this influential demographic in compelling and interactive new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world. Doppelganger is a privately held company with offices located in San Francisco, California.

About Epitome Pictures
For more than 25 years, Toronto-based Epitome Pictures and related companies have been producing award-winning television. The highly acclaimed Degrassi series includes The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, the tele-feature School's Out! and six documentaries entitled Degrassi Talks. The franchise continues today with Degrassi: The Next Generation, currently shooting its eighth season to bring the episode total for Degrassi: The Next Generation to 161, and the total overall for Degrassi to 257 half-hours. In the past, Epitome has also produced the half-hour teen drama Instant Star, the dramatic series Liberty Street, as well as English-Canada's first prime-time soap opera, Riverdale.

About Blast Radius
Blast Radius is a strategic interactive agency that builds long term relationships with global consumer brands to deliver innovative and profitable customer experiences. It does this by combining business savvy, experience design, and industry-leading technologies - including its work with ATG as an accredited partner. With offices across North America and Europe, Blast Radius clients include BMW, EA, Jenny Craig, Newell Rubbermaid, Nike, Nintendo, Virgin and Vodafone.
Blast Radius is a member of the Wunderman Network and WPP Group.

Partnership to Connect Advertisers to Key Demographic In Immersive Setting, Through Dynamic Placements Including Video, Digital Items, Sponsorships and More.

SAN FRANCISCO - April 3, 2008 - Premier independent game advertising provider Double Fusion and social entertainment company Doppelganger, Inc. have entered into a partnership to integrate brands into Doppelganger’s next generation virtual world experience, vSide.  Doppelganger will use Double Fusion’s market-leading technology and sales force to place advertising into vSide, utilizing the 3D social entertainment platform's immersive environment to create a variety of programs to reach the highly coveted teen demographic.

Double Fusion will place dynamic and integrated ads into vSide in the forms of branded décor, furnishings and digital items, as well as through video placements, custom sponsorships and more, both within the virtual world and on its accompanying website.  Double Fusion will draw on its agency expertise building marketing programs for the world’s leading brands to represent vSide to advertising partners.  By teaming up, the two companies are addressing the challenges faced by advertisers who need to connect with the valuable social networking audience, and the community who relies on brand affinity for self expression and identity.

“The culture of the demographic that makes up vSide’s membership is about expressing yourself through brand affiliation,” said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion. “That makes vSide’s immersive entertainment experience a place where advertisers can develop powerful interactions with their teen audiences.”

vSide is a three-dimensional social entertainment platform, providing teens with a complement to their existing two-dimensional, text-based social networking pages. Users create and dress an avatar, furnish their apartments, move about in-world and interact with friends in real-time, providing an interactive medium to express their creativity, test new identities and connect with their friends.  Users can enjoy vSide’s broad compilation of music, take in all the latest fashions from the hottest brands and party with friends in their own personal spaces.  Complementing the virtual world, vSide also features its own website which serves as a way for teens to communicate their in-world vSide activity to their friends through their social network of choice, such as Facebook and MySpace.  The website empowers users to manage their in-world profiles, track currency, publish vSide photographs and more.  In sum, the website provides users with the ability to manage and tout their vSide experience.
  
“We want vSide to be the best possible experience for users and advertisers alike and knew that Double Fusion’s expertise with matching brands to users in virtual world environments made them a strong choice to help achieve our goals,” said Tim Stevens, president and CEO, Doppelganger.
 
The addition of vSide to the Double Fusion network demonstrates the company’s commitment to offering their advertiser and agency partners a wide array of immersive advertising opportunities inside of games and online entertainment, to maximize revenues for its publisher and developer partners, and to build a portfolio of top titles among retail PC and console games, massively multiplayer online games, casual downloadable games, advanced online games and virtual worlds.

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger is a social entertainment company, and producer of the award winning vSide virtual world (www.vside.com). vSide is an immersive and connected virtual environment that complements and amplifies the interests of the youth demographic: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, communication, community and social networking. vSide makes it possible for media partners and brands to connect with this influential demographic in compelling and interactive new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world. Doppelganger is a privately held company with offices located in San Francisco, California.

About Double Fusion
Double Fusion is the game advertising expert. The company brings together the leading in-game ad serving technology, the broadest network of games across a wide variety of genres, and a sales force that has helped create and evolve the in-game advertising industry.  Double Fusion provides     marketers and their advertising agencies with the broadest range of in-game, around-game and web-based solutions with which to engage and sell the valuable and hard-to-reach gamer demographics.  Double Fusion is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo.  More information on Double Fusion is available at www.doublefusion.com.

Partnerships with eDoc Laundry, StarStyle and Downtown Records Expand Commerce and Music Sampling in Visually Stunning, Immersive World

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - August 14, 2007 – Doppelganger, Inc., the next generation social entertainment company offering programmed virtual entertainment for today’s youth, today announced the release of vSide, a dramatic evolution of its immersive social experience focused on music, entertainment, and fashion. More than three times larger than The Music Lounge, its previous incarnation, vSide offers users a level of engagement comparable with that of television coupled with interactivity that goes beyond the Web within a social environment that mirrors the real world.

The company also announced the addition of eDoc Laundry, StarStyle and Downtown Records to its partner roster, bringing powerful new brand association and transaction capabilities to a visually stunning, immersive urban commercial environment. vSide is chock full of music, videos, events, activities and dense foot traffic where young consumers come together to connect with their favorite artists, celebrities, and brands, discover new tastes, and become a part of the action. 

Doppelganger membership has increased more than sevenfold since February 2007, and the average in-world session has grown from 51 minutes in April to 77 minutes in July. Doppelganger members now spend an average of 11 hours in-world per month, compared with an average of two hours per month for typical social networks.

Said Tim Stevens, CEO Doppelganger, “As both our membership and their level of engagement in our in world experience continue to grow, vSide provides exciting new opportunities for brands to connect with young consumers in interesting ways in a controlled environment that’s safe for both brands and users, and specifically architected for in-world and out-of-world communication and promotion. For our users, vSide offers endless new ways to connect with a rich world of music, fashion, and entertainment, express themselves, gain recognition as stylemakers, and ascend in the world.”

Social Interaction
vSide lets Doppelganger members explore and discover bustling city neighborhoods with public clubs, hotspots and stores, flanked by personal apartments and studios inhabited by artists, celebrities, and users. Just as in a real city, members can become part of a real community, meet new people, dance, promote favorite bands, take up a career, and throw parties in private hang-out spaces tailored to their own tastes, from the music that plays, to the guest list, to completely customizing the furniture layout. Hundreds of new clothing items give members even greater freedom to customize their avatars and new mood selection, dances, and emotes to further expand in-world expressiveness.

Doppelganger encourages members to explore and create their own activities, driving in-world status and creating real communities around joint interests and passions. Within vSide, social networking is enhanced through a new social status system in which positive behavior such as making friends, inviting users to join the world, developing programming and content, entertaining others, promoting your favorite band and brands, and staying active earns “Respekt” points which help users gain access to VIP areas, rewards, and other perks

Music
As a growing roster of labels, artists, and celebrities takes up residence in vSide, independently owned music label and publishing company Downtown Records is the next to set up shop. Downtown Records is home to such great musicians as Gnarls Barkley, Cold War Kids and Kevin Michael. In vSide, Downtown Records will provide a gathering place for the community’s thriving underground music scene with the Downtown Records rehearsal studio. In the studio, users can gather to hang out and listen to music, chat with friends and interact with other people who share a passion for indie music. By connecting young people to the entertainment experiences they love users are able to forge deeper and more meaningful relationships with their favorite music as well as one another.

The vSide caters to a very broad range of musical tastes, with over 50 in world radio stations playing songs across all types and genres of music.

Fashion and Shopping
Fashion and shopping in vSide revolve around retail spaces with foot traffic and purchase patterns similar to that of a real-world city. The world’s professionally designed districts provide ideal locations for the promotion of partner content and products, which now encompass an expanded range of new stores and clothing, including the StarStyle boutique.  StarStyle goes on the sets of TV shows, movies and music videos to identify the styles for fans.  Now, with the addition of a virtual boutique in vSide, StarStyle will provide fans with a unique interactive shopping experience, thus bringing them one step close to their favorite stars.  Fans will be able to watch the latest music videos on large screens within the store, and then shop the virtual products seen on those videos so their avatars can wear the hottest fashions in music.

Merchants in vSide also have new ways to merchandize virtual goods: limited and rare inventories can be defined to increase demand and more closely model real-world shopping, and items can be restricted to users of a certain level or higher.

“StarStyle is at the apex of entertainment and shopping, so our partnership with Doppelganger is a natural extension of that,” said Ashley Heather, CEO of StarStyle. “Young consumers come together in vSide to interact and explore, and we’ll help them personalize their image while they’re doing it. This development brings us one step closer to achieving our vision of enabling consumers to purchase anything they see or experience in any form of media.”

Entertainment
vSide will also host Doppelganger’s new partnership with eDoc Laundry, which fuels an interactive “murder mystery” experience where users need to form investigation teams, seek out people throughout the environment, discover clues, form hypotheses and work backward to solve an in-world murder mystery. A virtual underground brand of eDoc Laundry clothing sold by secret characters hidden in various vSide locations will contain secrets that lead users through a variety of dynamic content including secret images, videos, items, and places that ultimately connect as part of the larger mystery.

“Edoc has broken all the rules of fashion by turning apparel into entertainment,” said Dawne Weisman, CEO, eDoc Laundry. “Our shirts have always told stories and brought together communities of people dedicated to solving their mysteries, and our product concept has even been featured in an entire episode of CSI: New York. Now, we’ll bring vSide not only innovative fashion, but also a new form of narrative social game play that we have created especially for this dynamic virtual environment. The gang at Doppleganger has been a pleasure to work with on this ground-breaking project and we look forward to continuing to break the rules with them.”

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger, Inc. is a social entertainment company offering virtual world experiences for today’s youth around music, fashion and entertainment. Doppelganger creates an immersive and connected virtual environment that reflects and amplifies the youth demographics' real-world interests: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. Doppelganger makes it possible for media partners and brands to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

Users can join the vSide at (www.vside.com). Doppelganger is a privately-held company based in San Francisco. www.doppelganger.com. 

Michael Rolnick of ComVentures Joins Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, CA-August 14, 2007 – Doppelganger, Inc., the social entertainment company offering programmed virtual world entertainment for today’s youth, today announced $11 million in new funding. New investor ComVentures leads the round along with existing backers Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Trident Capital, Draper Richards, KPG Ventures and Greycroft Partners. The company has raised a total of $25 million to date. Michael Rolnick, a partner with ComVentures, will join the Doppelganger Board of Directors.

Doppelganger will use the additional capital to support and accelerate the growth of the business, deliver innovative entertainment and tools to encourage users to participate, create and explore in a controlled online environment, while also looking to expand relationships with strategic media partners and brands. Doppelganger’s business momentum is illustrated by the recent launch of vSide, more than three times larger than The Music Lounge, its previous incarnation. vSide will offer users a level of engagement comparable with that of television coupled with interactivity that goes beyond the Web within a social environment that mirrors the real world.

Said Rolnick, “Doppelganger represents an entirely new entertainment medium focused on the things young consumers care about the most: music, entertainment, and fashion. Combining a breakthrough vision with crisp execution, the company has already built one of the most unique, compelling online experiences available, and ComVentures is pleased to provide support for its rapidly-growing business.”

Doppelganger’s visually stunning, emotionally compelling virtual world has built a strong following among today’s youth by offering participants a high level of engagement, interactivity that extends beyond the Web, and a social environment that mirrors the real world. In virtual city neighborhoods bustling with public clubs, hotspots, and stores flanked by personal apartments and studios, members can connect with their favorite artists, celebrities, and brands, discover new tastes, and become a part of the action. Entertainment includes an interactive, collaborative “murder mystery” experience through a partnership with eDoc Laundry and a thriving underground music scene, joined most recently by Downtown Records (home of Gnarls Barkley, Kevin Michael and the Cold War Kids). Customized avatars, mood selection, dance, and in-world fashion offer rich opportunities for self-expression, and members can pursue careers, stage events, build social status, and create communities that blur the distinction between real and virtual worlds.

For marketers, Doppelganger provides innovative new ways to connect with young consumers in a controlled environment that’s safe for both brands and users, and architected for cross-world communication and promotion. Fashion and shopping revolve around retail spaces with foot traffic similar and purchase patterns to that of a real-world city. The world’s professionally designed districts provide ideal locations for the promotion of partner content and products, which now encompass an expanded range of new stores and clothing including the newly opened StarStyle boutique.

Said Tim Stevens, CEO of Doppelganger, “We appreciate the support we’ve received from our investors, and we’re happy to welcome Michael Rolnick to our Board of Directors. The passionate following we’ve already inspired among young consumers and trend setters has more than validated our vision for Doppelganger. Now, with additional capital at hand as well as today’s release of a new version of our virtual world, we will continue to pioneer the next generation of social entertainment.”

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger, Inc. is a social entertainment company offering virtual world experiences for today’s youth around music, fashion and entertainment. Doppelganger creates an immersive and connected virtual environment that reflects and amplifies the youth demographics' real-world interests: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. Doppelganger makes it possible for media partners and brands to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

Users can join the vSide at (www.vside.com). Doppelganger is a privately-held company based in San Francisco. www.doppelganger.com. 

Maroon 5 as Featured Band, Today - First in a Series of Live Music Programming Events
Virtual World Offers Concerts, VIP Chats, Music and Exclusive Gear from Today's Hottest Music Acts

SAN FRANCISCO, May 23 /PRNewswire/ — Doppelganger Inc., the social entertainment company offering virtual world entertainment for today's youth, announced today an expansion of its existing relationship with Interscope Geffen A&M, a division of Universal Music Group. Doppelganger's Music Lounge is a free online social entertainment community for the youth market that will be adding brand new customized venues, music and events from artists on Interscope Geffen A&M's wide roster of talent; one that includes such performers as Maroon 5, U2, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado, All-American Rejects, Eminem, Daddy Yankee, and 50 Cent.

Set in a vibrant 3D virtual city where there is always something going on, The Music Lounge hosts social and entertainment events such as concerts, live VIP chat rooms, listening booths, shopping and DJ spin sets. Visitors to the Lounge create custom avatars that can laugh, flirt, smile, listen, gossip or dance, customizing everything from clothes to personality. By connecting young people to the entertainment experiences they love users are able to forge deeper and more meaningful relationships with their favorite music as well as one another.

Grammy Award-winning band Maroon 5 on A&M/Octone a joint venture with Interscope Records label, is the latest addition to the Music Lounge's exciting new lineup. Today, fans of the group will get to meet virtual replicas or avatars of the members including Adam Levine, James Valentine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Matt Flynn. Users can interact, hang out and chat it up with the band live during the event.

"We saw a tremendous response when The Pussycat Dolls helped launch the Music Lounge last spring, and we are enthusiastic about expanding our successful relationship with Doppelganger," said Luke Wood, Interscope A&R executive. "The Music Lounge provides an exciting platform for fans to build communities around our artists and to enjoy music and other great content in engaging ways. Doppelganger's virtual world helps lead Interscope and our artists to the next generation of social media and expression."

"By partnering with Interscope we are now able to put the "fan" back into fan club and provide exclusive events and the hottest music stars to further allow users to build deeper and more meaningful connections with the entertainment they love," said Tim Stevens, President and CEO Doppelganger Inc. "The Music Lounge reflects what young people care about — hanging out with their friends, talking about their favorite band or DJ and simply listening to good music. We appreciate Interscope's ability to be on the forefront of innovation by understanding the reach and creativity that the virtual environment holds."

Since Doppelganger's virtual world launched in May 2006, the company has pioneered a new form of entertainment combining special events, content, fashion, and social interaction set within a rich, immersive virtual world. The extended partnership announced today build on early successes such as The Pussycat Dolls live in The Music Lounge, DJ AM events and the launch of The Tyra Banks Virtual Studio to create a broader social media platform extending across the full range of media and entertainment experiences craved by the youth demographic.

About Doppelganger, Inc.
Doppelganger, Inc. is a social entertainment company offering collaboratively programmed virtual world entertainment for today's youth. Doppelganger creates an immersive and connected virtual environment that reflects and amplifies the youth demographics' real-world experiences and interests: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. Doppelganger makes it possible for content providers and advertisers to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

Shady Records President, CAA Co-Founder, MTV Networks Music EVP, Music Law Firm Founder and Top Talent Agent Join Board

SAN FRANCISCO – May 15, 2007 – Doppelganger, Inc., the social entertainment company offering virtual world entertainment for today’s youth in The Music Lounge (www.themusiclounge.com), today announced the appointment of The Music Lounge Board of Advisors. The Music Lounge is a free online social entertainment community bringing VIP access and collaborative programming for music, fashion and celebrities to the youth market.

Top entertainment and music executives Fred Davis, Courtney William Holt, Michael Ovitz, Paul Rosenberg and David Schiff (listed in alphabetical order) have joined The Music Lounge Board of Advisors to offer their expertise and advice on how to maintain and grow The Music Lounge community offerings and benefits for the entertainment and music industry.

“We are very lucky to have such high caliber executive talent sitting on The Music Lounge Board of Advisors,” said Tim Stevens, Doppelganger CEO. “The industry knowledge and experience that these advisors bring will be key in our success in offering innovative, cutting-edge entertainment experiences to the teen demographic”.

Fred Davis is founder of the leading music law firm Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes, which represents music stars including Linkin Park, Usher and Kanye West. Fred is a digital music, rights and distribution expert. His clients include companies such as YouTube, MySpace, Joost, Rhapsody and last.fm. Fred served as Executive Vice President at EMI Records before he founded his current firm in 1997.

Courtney William Holt is EVP Digital for MTV Networks Music and Logo Group leading digital business and innovation initiatives. He previously headed New Media for Interscope Geffen A&M records/Universal Music Group where he helped develop digital and mobile marketing efforts for artists including Gwen Stefani, Eminem, 50 Cent, Beck, Nine Inch Nails and U2.

Michael Ovitz co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its Chairman until 1995 during which he grew the agency from a start-up organization to the world’s leading talent agency, representing more than 1,000 of the most notable actors, directors, musicians, screenwriters and other personalities in the entertainment industry. Ovitz helped negotiate several major international business mergers and deals within the entertainment industry including Matsushita’s acquisition of MCA/Universal, the financial rescue of MGM/United Artists, and Sony’s acquisition of Columbia Pictures. He also served as President of the Walt Disney Company from 1995 to 1997.

Paul Rosenberg is President and Co-Founder of Shady Records, home to rap superstars 50 Cent and D 12. He is also CEO of Goliath Artists, Inc., his management firm that guides the careers of Eminem, Travis Barker and DJ AM. Originally a music attorney, he also has served as producer of Eminem's 2002 blockbuster "8 Mile" and 50 Cent's 2005 movie "Get Rich or Die Tryin'".

David Schiff, top talent agent for more than 25 years at agencies including CAA and currently running The Schiff Company, a media and talent management company, has worked with clients including Sean Connery, Kevin Bacon, Robert Downey Jr., Barbara Streisand, Sting, Ray Liotta, John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Jeff Bridges, Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Danny Glover, Sharon Stone, Wesley Snipes, Bernie Mac, Ryan Phillippe, Mark Wahlberg, and Liv Tyler. Schiff packaged the blockbuster movie “8 Mile”, launched UTA’s modeling division, with clients such as Christy Turlington and Claudia Schiffer, and most recently Gwen Stefani¹s clothing line. He is an expert in successfully guiding crossover career aspirations in acting, fashion, video games, or product branding.

Together, The Music Lounge Board of Advisors and Doppelganger executives will continue to work to provide an immersive and connected virtual community around music, fashion, celebrity and social events in a secure environment.

About Doppelganger
Doppelganger, Inc. is a social entertainment company offering collaboratively programmed virtual world entertainment for today’s youth. Doppelganger creates an immersive and connected virtual environment that reflects and amplifies the youth demographics' real-world experiences and interests: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. Doppelganger makes it possible for content providers and advertisers to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

Doppelganger Selected by AlwaysOn as an OnHollywood 100 Top Private Company Award Winner Recognized for leadership in emerging technology for digital entertainment and media

SAN FRANCISCO – April 30, 2007– Doppelganger, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnHollywood 100 Top Private Companies. The OnHollywood 100 is a power list of the top private emerging technology companies in digital entertainment and media. The Music Lounge Doppelganger creates was handpicked by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on a set of five criteria—innovation, market potential, customer adoption, media buzz and investor value creation.

The Music Lounge from Doppelganger and the OnHollywood 100 will be honored at the OnHollywood digital entertainment and media event, May 1-3, 2007, at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Calif. OnHollywood delves into the challenges, opportunities and business models of the digital era, and showcases the most innovative private companies that are changing the way entertainment and media is created, distributed, consumed and monetized.

OnHollywood is an important forum that presents and debates the critical issues surrounding the transformation of the entertainment economy to one based on digital technology,” said Tony Perkins, founder and CEO of AlwaysOn.
“Digital technology has transformed the way content is created and delivered to consumers everywhere. Doppelganger and the OnHollywood Top 100 companies are an elite group of innovators who are using this technology to revolutionize the industry.”

The OnHollywood 100 was selected from more than 1,000 companies, peer-nominated by leading venture capitalists, investment bankers and industry analysts.

Tim Stevens, Doppelganger CEO, will participate in the “What's In-Store for Virtual Worlds and Next Generation Gaming?” session at 2:15 p.m. on May 2 at OnHollywood 2007.
The Music Lounge is a free online social entertainment community bringing VIP access and collaborative programming for music, fashion and celebrities to the global youth market.

“We are honored that OnHollywood recognizes the innovation and effort Doppelganger invests in providing an entirely immersive way for fans and friends to experience entertainment,” said Tim Stevens, Doppelganger CEO. “The Music Lounge is a unique destination bringing the glamour and excitement of Hollywood and local social entertainment to the youth demographic, no matter where they live – where else can you meet Tyra Banks and see the hottest DJs perform in the same day?”

A full list of all the OnHollywood 100 companies can be found on the AlwaysOn Web site at: http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/8389

About OnHollywood 2007: May 1-3 @ The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood, California
OnHollywood is where cutting edge technology from the backstreets of Silicon Valley converges with Hollywood’s media and entertainment elite. The two-and-a-half day event borrows from the “film market” tradition by providing an open environment for digital media and entertainment entrepreneurs to meet the big-time studio, telco and consumer electronics executives, venture capitalists and media. At OnHollywood, our editors will also honor the OnHollywood 100 Top Private Companies. Fifty of the top CEOs from the OnHollywood 100 will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in our “CEO Showcase."

The Tyra Banks Show, and DJ AM Give Young Consumers More of What They Care About in Doppelganger’s Immersive, Youth-Focused Virtual World

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - April 16, 2007 – Doppelganger, Inc., the social entertainment company offering programmed virtual world entertainment for today’s youth, today announced extended partnerships with The Tyra Banks Show as well as a new deal with DJ AM to bring high-profile talent, music, and events to its immersive, collaboratively programmed online experiences.

Doppelganger’s environment provides an increasingly vital venue for youth-focused talent, entertainment companies, and brands. As the first generation to come of age entirely in an always-on world, today’s young consumers see the Web as a natural and intuitive place to grow and experience new things, and a seamless extension of their offline life.

Unlike traditional media, which are programmed in a top-down, unilateral manner, Doppelganger’ s immersive virtual world is programmed through a collaborative process involving users as well as content producers. A rich, interactive 3D environment makes it simple for young people to decide what they want to see, when, and how, and navigate intuitively among live events, rich media, and user-generated content to connect and interact more deeply with the things they care about most: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. For marketers, Doppelganger makes it possible to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

Said Doppelganger CEO Tim Stevens, “Over the past year, we’ve developed a solid understanding of how to create amazing experiences for the youth demographic. These kids care deeply about interacting with people, learning new things, exploring popular culture, music, and media. By using our immersive programming as a cool new way to connect with this market, youth-oriented brands and companies can energize their fans into a vital community of evangelists and activists.”

DJ AM Keeps the Music Lounge Spinning

One of the world’s top DJs and an owner of Hollywood’s exclusive LAX lounge, DJ AM will now spin regularly in Doppelganger’s Music Lounge as well as at offline Doppelganger events. Set in a virtual 3D city, The Music Lounge is a collaborative program of entertainment events such as concerts, live VIP chat rooms, listening booths, shopping, and DJ spin sets. Visitors interacting through customized avatars can dance, laugh, flirt, smile, listen, gossip—just as in a real club, but without the velvet rope (or the ID check).

Said DJ AM, “I'm very excited at the idea of getting to DJ in cyberspace. Surprised someone didn't think of it yet. Doppelganger has made a world I wanna hang out in and I'm excited and honored to be a part of it.”

The Tyra Banks Show” Breaks New Ground

As an influential TV personality and digital entertainment innovator, talk show host Tyra Banks extends her viewer experience virtually. The show reaches young women through a fun, eclectic, and highly relevant mix of topical issues, beauty and fashion advice, field-based social experiments, and celebrity guests. Set in The Music Lounge, fans can hang out on Tyra’s virtual stage, chat with other Tyra fans from around the world, attend exclusive events, and interact with Tyra herself.

“I love writing my journals and reading blog comments from viewers on tyrashow.com, but creating a virtual talk show set and a virtual ‘mini-me’ allows me to take that interaction to the next level,” said talk show host Tyra Banks. “This technology is so amazing. I am blown away by how advanced it is. Viewers can pick their hairstyle, hair color, their clothing, and more. Then they can hang out on the set and chat with other people, a group of friends, or even me. Once viewers try it, they’re going to be addicted - I'm so hooked!”

About Doppelganger
Doppelganger, Inc. is a social entertainment company offering collaboratively programmed virtual world entertainment for today’s youth. Doppelganger creates an immersive and connected virtual environment that reflects and amplifies the youth demographics' real-world experiences and interests: music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, community, and social networking. Doppelganger makes it possible for content providers and advertisers to connect with this influential demographic in cool, interesting new ways through a vibrantly created, expertly targeted social entertainment world.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Feb 14, 2007 – PRNewswire - Doppelganger, Inc., a provider of next generation avatar based virtual worlds with customers including MTV, Warner Brothers and Interscope, today announced the appointment of Tim Stevens to the position of President, Chief Executive Officer and board member. Stevens succeeds the company's founding Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Littlefield, who remains on as Chief Creative Officer and board member.

"We're very excited to bring someone of Tim's caliber and capabilities into this leadership role," said Andrew Littlefield, founder of Doppelganger. "I look forward to partnering with Tim and taking Doppelganger to the next level delivering an innovative new way for marketers and entertainment companies to connect with the youth demographic in a realistic, intimate, virtual experience."

Stevens has worked for and advised several emerging private and public companies over his career. Most recently, he served as a senior executive of Borland Software Corporation, where he was responsible for overseeing business services, streamlining and accelerating the customer closure process, driving sales initiatives, and supporting corporate development. Prior to Borland, Stevens served as interim Chief Executive Officer of Fios, Inc., a high growth provider of electronic discovery services, where he set the next generation strategic framework for the business, and serves as Chairman of the Board today. Before Fios, he served as a senior executive of Inktomi Corporation, where he was instrumental in taking the company public, structuring and overseeing several strategic partnerships, and managing business development activities including orchestrating the sale of the company to Yahoo!. Stevens holds BS degrees in both Finance and Management from the University of Oregon, and a JD degree from the University of California, Davis.

"Tim Stevens is a wonderful addition to the Doppelganger team — he clearly has the leadership capabilities to drive the company towards further success," says Andreas Stravropoulos, Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and investor in Doppelganger.

"Doppelganger has seen an incredible amount of commercial and user interest over the last year," said Evangelos Simoudis, Managing Director at Trident Capital, also an investor in Doppelganger, "I believe that the addition of Tim Stevens to lead the executive team, along with Littlefield's product guidance and industry vision will enable the company to succeed in becoming the market leader in this sector."

"Tyra’s Avatar to Host Event in the Studio on Monday, February 19 from 6-8pm PST"

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Feb 14, 2007 – On Monday, February 19, 2007, Doppelganger and Telepictures Productions launch “The Tyra Banks Show” Virtual Set in the 3D virtual world, The Music Lounge, making “The Tyra Banks Show” the first and only television show in The Music Lounge and leading the way as an innovator in the digital space.

The Music Lounge is a free 3D virtual world where fans can explore a virtual city, chat with their friends, listen to music, and just hang out. Optimized for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users, The Music Lounge lets fans design their own avatars, a digital replica of themselves, by customizing everything from their hair to their clothes to their personality all while listening to the latest music. The avatars can dance, smile, laugh, and flirt just like at a party in the real world.

“The Tyra Banks Show” Virtual Set is the latest addition to the Music Lounge’s urban landscape. Fans of “The Tyra Banks Show” can hang out on Tyra’s virtual stage, chat with other Tyra fans from around the world, attend exclusive events and interact with talk show host Tyra Banks herself. On Monday, February 12, the show held the first event on the virtual set where Tyra hosted a Post-Grammy Party.

“Tyra’s loyal audience and her brand are a perfect fit for this virtual world. This venture also gives the show a new platform for its core audience of teens and young adults to blend the entertainment value of television with the socializing power of the web, which is increasingly becoming an integral component of that audience’s daily media mix,” said Hilary Estey McLoughlin, President of Telepictures Productions. “Creating this groundbreaking extension of the ‘Tyra’ brand is indicative of the long-term strength and growth of the show.”

"I love writing my journals and reading blog comments from viewers on tyrashow.com, but creating a virtual talk show set and a virtual ‘mini-me’ allows me to take that interaction to the next level,” said talk show host Tyra Banks. “This technology is so amazing. I am blown away by how advanced it is. Viewers can pick their hairstyle, hair color, their clothing, and more. Then they can hang out on the set and chat with other people, a group of friends, or even me. Once viewers try it, they’re going to be addicted - I'm so hooked!”

“We’re thrilled that Telepictures has chosen us as a partner and we’re very excited about giving Tyra’s fans a place to hang out online, talk about the show, connect with each other, and enjoy exclusive content and events,” said Doppelganger CEO, Tim Stevens.

To join talk show host Tyra Banks on her virtual set, viewers can download the software via the talk show’s website, www.tyrashow.com (as of Friday, February 16 at 5pm PST).

About “The Tyra Banks Show”
”The Tyra Banks Show” gives today's young women the "girlfriend" they want to hang out with, and the role model they need. With hot, young, celebrity guests, a set that’s always in fashion, and an original theme song written by pop diva India.Arie that’s recently been re-mixed, topical issues, beauty and fashion advice along with field-based social experiments, the show speaks to a new generation of women in a relevant voice.

Originating from Los Angeles, “The Tyra Banks Show” is produced by Bankable Productions and Handprint Entertainment, in association with Telepictures Productions, an industry-leading and Emmy® Award-winning producer of reality and reality-based programming. The series is executive produced by Alex Duda, John Redmann, Tyra Banks and Benny Medina. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution.

About Telepictures Productions
Telepictures Productions currently produces six nationally syndicated strips including the freshman season of “The Dr. Keith Ablow Show,” the second season of “The Tyra Banks Show,” the fourth season of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” winner of three consecutive Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Talk Show, the eighth season of “Judge Mathis,” the 10th season of “The People’s Court,” and the 13th season of “Extra.” The company also produces the weekly variety show, “Showtime at the Apollo” and the entertainment news website, TMZ.com, and recently announced a TMZ tv show for fall 2007.

About Doppelganger
Doppelganger (formerly Evil Twin Studios) provides next-generation avatar-based virtual worlds in conjunction with entertainment and media companies. The first property from Doppelganger is The Music Lounge (www.themusiclounge.com), which lets music fans chat and interact with their friends in a virtual club while listening to their favorite music. The latest addition to The Music Lounge is the Tyra Banks Virtual Studio where fans of the Tyra Banks show can hang out on Tyra's virtual stage, chat with other Tyra fans from around the world, and attend exclusive events. Doppelganger is a privately-held company based in San Francisco.