Second Life Entrepreneurs - Cashing in on Virtual Worlds November 28

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News that a user of the increasingly-popular online Second Life environment has become a millionaire through trading virtual property on the site has sparked huge interest about the entrepreneurial possibilities of such virtual trading.

Second Life AdvertisingGerman schoolteacher Ailin Graef, who goes by the avatar name of Anshe Chung on the meta-environment of Second Life, has become a millionaire by investing a mere US$9.95 a month in virtual real estate and then selling it on. She now has a net worth of over $1 million. It may seem nigh-on implausible that selling something which does not physically exist can lead to such riches being gained, but people with a keen eye for business are increasingly becoming drawn to an environment in which sufficient hours and canny acquisitions have shown they can reap rewards.

Second Life itself is a sprawling three-dimensional online world which is available to subscribers on a number of different levels - from free membership to an annual $72 a month fee. Members receive stipends upon signing up, with which they can buy into land or other initiatives - and the ‘Lindex Dollars’ earned through buying and selling various assets can be exchanged for real-life money in what is a highly-innovative twist.

There have been concerns that programs which claim to be able to clone virtual assets may reduce the worth of such virtual entrepreneurs’ holdings, but where the likes of Ms Graef are protected - for now - is in the fact that the environment of Second Life is finite and so new land cannot simply be created at will. This means that assets are less likely to be devalued.

More and more real-life companies are setting themselves up on Second Life, which was reported to have had a $64 million GDP as of September this year. The likes of MTV, Reuters, Dell, Disney, Adidas Reebok and the BBC have already been involved in some projects on the site and, with users’ individual enterprises having been set up specifically for Second Life, they look likely to contribute increasingly to a thriving virtual � or not so virtual, given the obvious
potential gains - economy.

The spread of environments like Second Life also provides intriguing advertising possibilities - which are effectively being pursued already by those non-virtual companies and organisations which have already made their presences felt on the site. Virtual press conferences have been held on Second Life before (the first one having been made by Bite Communications), which suggests that video webcasts could soon become the norm in this environment. Such methods of virtual advertising are likely to prove increasingly popular - Second Life has well over a million ‘citizens’ from all around the world and it is occupying an ever-greater amount of their time. The possible dividends are obvious and have already been hinted at by the exploits of the ambitious Ms Graef.

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