(Inc) — Global revenue from the sales of virtual goods will reach $6 billion by 2013, according to Minneapolis-based investment firm Piper Jaffray, which isn’t too shabby for a product that has been deemed by many to be “intangible” or “non-existent.” To the contrary, consumers have shelled out millions for clothing, housing and miscellaneous gifts made purely from a few kilobytes of data. The growth of the virtual economy is causing many to puzzle over how companies have reached major profitability from this phenomenon.
