, was a Japanese

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and

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

where users upload photos of their clothes and earn website currency to dress up their avatars. Created by

CyberAgent is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is the representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is the execut ...

, Poupéegirl was first launched on February 28, 2007, and relocated to Ameba in 2009. Poupéegirl ended updates for the website on August 31, 2013, before finally closing on March 31, 2015. During the years when Poupéegirl was active, the website had over 560,000 users in 2009. In addition to their website services, they released a line of licensed video games for the

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, all published by Alvion, as well as a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

game.

History

On February 28, 2007, the website was launched and was initially managed by

. However, on March 3, 2008, Poupéegirl Inc. was officially established and extended services to

mobile phones A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

. In 2009, the website moved to Ameba. Poupéegirl briefly launched a

application titled "Poupée Boutique" on July 21, 2010, which was then closed on November 18, 2010, due to administrative reasons. On July 5, 2013, Poupéegirl announced that the website will terminate some of its gameplay features starting on August 31, 2013. This included closing registration to new users, putting an end to releases on new items, and shutting down the pay-to-play jewels and friend invitation systems. On February 27, 2015, Poupéegirl announced that they would officially be closing the website on March 31, 2015.

Gameplay

The currency of the game was "ribbons", which could be earned by completing various tasks, including posting fashion items, logging in, dressing up avatars, and commenting on other users' photos. Those ribbons could be used to buy clothing for avatars. Users could also randomly obtain shells to exchange for dress-up items. In 2009, the website implemented a new currency, "jewels", a pay-to-play system where some users were able to access clothing items for their avatar that non-paying users could not. Jewel clothing items could be purchased exclusively with jewels during events or by bidding competitively for them at the Jewel Auction.

Closet

Users could post photos of actual clothing and accessories which other users of the website could view and comment on as well as create their own virtual closet. Fashion items could be categorized according to brand name (listed under the brand name in the Fashion Dictionary) and type. Every item had a yellow "Suteki" (or "Cute") button. If a user got many suteki rankings or comments, he or she were eligible to win ribbons.

Avatar

Each user had a customizable avatar, which they could dress up with clothing and accessories. The avatar, designed by Maminoir, was detailed to make it appeal to female users. Dressing up daily led to earning more ribbons, with each daily dress-up recorded in a calendar on the user's profile. During events, the background of the avatar would change from a normal room. Occasionally, the website had a contest with a selected theme for the best dressed avatar, which led to a ribbon prize and a new item. Poupéegirl had a marketplace where users could buy or sell their avatar's clothing. The website's mascot, Katharine, owned a shop that regularly sold clothing pertaining to seasonal styles or monthly events. Poupéegirl also endorsed collaborations or campaigns with brand names and celebrities, allowing users to buy items for their avatar specially designed by them or based on real-life products. These included

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's Happy Bath Day Precious Rose line,

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, and

Nozomi Tsuji , known professionally by her birth name (born June 17, 1987) is a Japanese media personality, singer, and blogger. In 2000, she began her career as a singer for Japanese girl band Morning Musume. Tsuji later found success with related groups ...

Reception

As of 2009, there were about 560,000 registered users, with 98% being women and 35% living outside Japan. Many Japanese fashion brands appreciated its capability of promoting fashion goods through the website.

Merchandise

On December 17, 2009, a video game was released for Poupéegirl on the

and was published by Alvion, titled . A second video game was released on December 16, 2010, in two versions: and . Completing certain objectives in all games allowed users to obtain secret codes that would unlock exclusive dress-up items for the avatars on the main website.

References

External links

Official Poupéegirl staff blog

Alvion's website for Poupéegirl DS

Alvion's website for Poupéegirl DS 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poupee Girl Dress-up video games CyberAgent Japanese fashion Internet properties established in 2007 Japanese social networking websites Defunct social networking services