Introducing: The Social Network Stock Exchange

The online stock exchange Empire Avenue has made a game of social networking. Celebrity and other users and businesses can connect Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr accounts to the service; all personalities and corporations are assigned ticker symbols and share prices, determined by amount of followers, blog posts, photo uploads and overall daily activity. That activity is used to unlock badges and achievements, and shares of each individual or brand can be bought and sold on the open market, causing stock price to fluctuate, and rewarding shareholders with regular daily divided payouts of virtual cash. No real-world money is collected or exchanged. Still, we’re confident that virtual analysts maintain a SELL rating on Nicki Minaj, currently trading at $34.16 — roughly $0.36 more than Oprah.