Press Info

Ten years of online trading

Release date: 12/19/11

The online trading game Miniconomy celebrates its 10 year anniversary. In these 10 years Miniconomy has earned its title as one of the most persistent multiplayer browser games developed in Holland. After approximately 100 trading periods with over 100,000 participants the developers, the brothers Wouter and Mark Leenards, now throw a party.

Miniconomy started in January 2002 with a little over 100 participants and has grown rapidly to a game with thousands of traders around the world. Since 2004 the game got introduced in the Dutch education system because of its valuable and realistic nature. The creative input from both players and creators transformed Miniconomy into an online society: The Federation, consisting of countries like Cyberia and Digitalia. In these fictitious countries you can trade, become a politician, found companies, commit crimes and socialize just like in the real world.

There is a newspaper, a law book, an educational- and political system and players can have all sorts of professions, from real estate agent to mayor. The goal is to build your own commercial empire and to earn as much money as possible during a round. Together with your friends you cooperate to beat the competition. A trading period takes three weeks. "The most active players spend more then ten entire days online during a round", says Wouter Leenards, who invented and programmed the game.

Participating in the game is free, the creators never had the intention to earn money with the game. The funds to pay the bills are being raised with both gifts and 'credits', a currency used to gain small advantages in the game.

The party to celebrate this 10 year anniversary will take place on the 14th of January 2012 in Amsterdam. The party is dedicated to honor the existence of Miniconomy and has no commercial intentions.

In 2005 Mark Leenards (28) dedicated his time on the 'real' economy and became manager of a private investment fund. Wouter (30) now has a job as web developer, but still spends a lot of time on improving the game. After ten years of development and programming the game still makes him feel satisfied: "It's amazing to see both young and old players getting involved in the game. It is incredible to see how creative some players are with the virtual funds we give them. After ten years we still have players that started at the very beginning. Miniconomy never gets boring".