Cookies

When attempting to purchase an ad, the 3rd party payment processor Stripe may set cookies and process your data in accordance with Stripe's privacy policy. If you do not consent to Stripe's terms, then unfortunately you can't purchase an ad at this moment. When an ad is purchased, other info may be logged (including your IP address) for diagnostic and debugging purposes. Your email address is stored and is used solely for customer support. Stripe securely and separately handles your credit card information to perform the one-time charge.

Virtual Environment

• When you buy ads you will not own any part of this website ("app"), but rather you are granted the right to submit an image, link, and description which will then be published in the respective space you have paid for.
• The "million dollar" goal is purely aspirational, and I reserve the right to reduce or increase the price of individual ads, the amount of ads (within reason) such that the final sales amount is under or above this amount. However, the dimensions of the city will not increase beyond 23 by 23 to help preserve scarcity and retain the value of the ad purchased.
• Although the advertisement spot and relative building location are preserved, the position of the camera in the world when the app is loaded is subject to change, which may affect the initial visibility of your ad. In order to preserve expectations and consistency, the camera will always be centered around the middle of the grid, however the height and direction of the camera is subject to change. For example, this app may be updated to show the entire grid zoomed out from a top-down view, in which case your ad may not be visible.
• The "display" or "screen" in which your ad is displayed on may change in color, brightness, saturation, or have any number of graphical effects or overlays applied to accommodate better performance or a change in aesthetics. Any effects added will likely be to improve the city "look and feel", with a predominantly technological/futuristic theme.
• You accept that the building you purchased your ad on, the ad itself, and its accompanying designs, features, behaviors, and functionalities may be updated to improve the end user experience. This might result your ad looking and behaving different than when it first appeared. However, the general structure of the building, and the users' ability to select ads, view their images, descriptions, and visit the site will always remain. You also accept that the format, look, and behavior of the 3D menu that accompanies your ad to display the description and links is subject to change or be removed for a better substitute. All changes will be done in an attempt to improve aesthetics or functionality, but if you have a complaint regarding a change, please contact support at the email address provided to you after purchase.
• New building designs, features, and mechanics may be later introduced as options for new advertisers. After you purchase an ad, you may not be entitled to get these new features as they may require additional information or media. You are free to purchase another ad in another space to get these new features.
• Due to atmospheric effects, lighting, post-processing, and overlay effects, you accept that your ad may in some cases lose detail and/or legibility. If you have any complaints or notice a problem with your ad, please contact support at the email address provided to you after purchase.
• In order to further improve graphics and network performance, I may reduce the resolution of your advertisement or display a compressed version the image. This means your advertisement might become blurry or have artifacts. In order to reduce image degradation, please provide an image at the indicated resolution and format type. Additionally, keeping the text/features large with good contrast will help preserve necessary detail.
• You accept that your advertisement may be blocked at certain angles, and I cannot guarantee that it will be as visible as it was at the time of purchase (due to increased concentration of ads and buildings). In addition, you accept that floating environmental objects may block your advertisement temporarily.
• Extensive testing in full-capacity environments has been conducted to ensure good performance on most devices, and acceptable but slower performance on older devices. However, as the environment fills up, performance will moderately degrade as more ads are displayed on the screen at one time and loaded over the network. By purchasing an ad you accept that the app is not guaranteed to have good performance or even function on all devices or browsers at all times, although considerable effort has and will be given to ensure good compatibility and performance.

Content

• The app is guaranteed to be online for at least one year from the release, however the goal is to be able to keep the site running indefinitely.
• No obscene/offensive/adult images/links will be accepted, and I decide what is appropriate for the app. If you submit an image or link that is rejected, you will have the opportunity to provide an alternative, otherwise your money will be refunded and the ad space returned.
• If your link is accepted and you later change the content of the linked site to show offensive/obscene/adult material then your link will be removed until you provide a new one, and you will not get a refund of any kind for the link downtime.
• If for whatever reason in the future you want your image and link removed from the app, you can do that, but you will not get a refund and the space will become publicly available again.
• You cannot change the image, link, or description once you have submitted them, so you must be sure of what you want before making a purchase. The only exception is if you have a strong reason why you need a change to your image/link, e.g. your site no longer exists, major structural change to your site, lawsuits, etc.
• You must have the authority to provide the image and link for the website you submit.
• There may be occasional downtime for maintenance but I will try and keep these to a minimum. Additionally, the app structure may change to improve performance, which may temporarily break the app.
• Due to clientside and serverside caching, submitted ads may not appear on your device for some time after submitting the ad. If you want to see an update as soon as possible, try clearing your browser cache or try a different browser/device. In addition, there is an approval process which may take up to 24 hours (likely within 0-8 hours). After a successful ad purchase your spot is reserved immediately and is no longer available to anyone else.

About

Million Dollar Metropolis is inspired by the original Million Dollar Homepage from 2005. To cover his university expenses, a student sold one million dollars' worth of pixels on a 2D advertising space on his website. Fifteen years later, this project attempts to replicate the success of the original in a creative new way by bringing the concept into 3D with a futuristic city environment.

Advertising on the web has become increasingly privacy-invading and annoying. At the same time, people enjoy advertising if it's done in an appropriate and attractive environment, such as Times Square in New York, or fictional environments like Blade Runner. The goal of this project is to create a novel and stimulating environment for advertisers and an audience.

Why Buy Ads?

• The number of zones/lots will not increase in order to maintain scarcity (there are around 500 buildings total).
• Your ad stays up for at least three full years.
• There are no recurring fees and you don't need to create an account.
• The purchase process allows you to preview what your ad will look like before you buy.

How It Works

As a visitor, you can browse the environment, check out ads you're interested in, and come back to track the progression of the world. Select a building, read the description (), and click "Visit" to go to the advertisers' website.

If you're interested in purchasing an ad, you can select "Advertise Here", which places you in "Purchase Mode" where you can view and select where you want your ad. Ads are purchased top-down, which means if you buy an ad on an empty building, then it will appear at the top. Be sure to read the "Terms and Conditions" at the bottom before checkout, which provides more specific information regarding your ad and the environment.

NOTE: Ad spots are currently selling at a reduced price.

The city is comprised of a 23 by 23 grid, which results in 529 blocks or "zones", however only 500 of these zones are for sale. Each zone contains a building, which is comprised of 8 advertisements spots ("ad spots"), for $250/spot, totalling $2000/building, and 4000 ad spots in total. 500 buildings at $2,000/building equals $1,000,000, which is the amount this website is intended to sell. Currently, half of the zones are temporarily disabled in order to encourage spacial distribution and allow future building styles to be mixed in.

Privacy Policy

When viewing and browsing the website, I do not collect any detailed and potentially personally identifiable information such as IP addresses or unique device identifiers. However, the following non-personally identifiable information may be used for statistical purposes: country of origin, device type, browser type, and referrer. There are no analytics or 3rd party advertisement components added to this website.

When attempting to purchase an ad, the 3rd party payment processor Stripe may set cookies and process your data in accordance with Stripe's privacy policy. If you do not consent to Stripe's terms, then unfortunately you can't purchase an ad at this moment. When an ad is purchased, other info may be logged (including your IP address) for diagnostic and debugging purposes. Your email address is stored and is used solely for customer support. Stripe securely and separately handles your credit card information to perform the one-time charge.

Contact

You can reach me on Twitter for questions, comments, feedback, or customer support. You can also contact me by email via the address provided to you after purchase.