Second Life - Future of Virtual Worlds

The Second Life virtual community is settling down after a period of phenomenal growth. I met a senior member of the development team recently who tells me that they are experiencing all the economic challenges of a small country, with over 34 million citizens of which 50,000 are online and moving around at any time engaging with others. The latest upgrade to Second Life means you can talk to people and maybe one day you will be able to create a three dimensional image of yourself though most people seem to prefer a fictional name and appearance.

The governors of the world have to meet every few days to keep an eye on currency, exchange rates and inflation. When real estate prices rise too high they release more land for development – but if they release too much they could cause a price crash, and also create too much space for people to wander around in without meeting too many other people. They also need to watch out for currency stability and when the Linden dollar to US dollar gets too high they print more money.
The creators of Second Life don’t actually sell any products or services to citizens, relying on the rest of the community to organise themselves.

The average age of a Second Life user is over 40 - and many are over 65. While men and women are roughly equal in numbers of users, women tend to stay in thew virtual world longer and so there are usually slightly more women than men in Second Life.

Intelligent clothes - gimmick or market trend? - and virtual real estate takes off

So i-pod is selling an add-on for Nike, allowing runners to see output on the i-pod generated from the electronics in their trainers.  Gap is selling a hooded garment with speakers in the hood itself…. And the there is virtual real estate itself.

Some of these are fads and others are for real.

OK so the market for digitally enhanced clothing is small and likely to remain modest, but gaming is a whole new story.  According to Catherine Smith, Linden Lab (owner's of Second Life) director of marketing, "In January of 2006, Second Life residents exchanged $1,384,752,765 in-world 'Linden' dollars, or over $5 million U.S. dollars.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2006/id20060502_832540.htm

“If you haven't heard of Anshe Chung yet — you will. She's a "real" estate agent... but not your ordinary "real" estate agent. She's not real, at least not in the flesh and blood sense. She's merely the online avatar for a Chinese-born language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany. But her virtual business is very real.  Second Life members pay "Linden dollars" (the in-game currency) to rent or buy virtual homes from Chung. However, Lifers can convert that "play money" into real U.S. dollars by using their credit card at online currency exchanges. Today Chung's firm currently has about $250,000 U.S. dollars worth of virtual land and currency holdings.”