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Should we make time for a Second Life?
Posted by: Montage comms | 02.10.07
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 9,810,236 Residents from around the globe. People can interact through instant messaging or voice. When you take a tour of the world you can buy, sell or trade services that have been created by “Avatars” (or residents to you or I.)
Land can also be traded on Second Life and there has been a huge land grab by large organisations who have bought up huge offices and advertising space. These include Microsoft, Coca Cola and interestingly Reuters (the world wide news Giant) has also built a replica of its international HQ. The trading of land on this site is threatening to become serious business with 16 acres going for $1,600 US dollars.
When we last looked (2nd of Oct) there were 28,000 people online so do not get too excited regarding the resident’s figures but over $1.2 million US dollars had been spent on services on the site in the last 24hrs.
The engagement from media doesn’t seem to halt and a good summary of interest from the outside world is Second Life’s own virtual newspaper the Second Life Herald. Second Life’s media landscape must be taken seriously though with the following “Real media” with a Second Life presence including:
There are obvious opportunities for advertisers to target a healthy daily audience, but as people can change sex and age when putting their alter egos together as “Avatars” it would be hard to breakdown demographics for this site.
The population according to Wired growing on a 36% monthly basis. It had approximately 236,528 regular residents logging in in the last 90 days. So when comparing audiences Second Life is a lot smaller than say MySpace.
However, I believe that Second Life may not be the end game solution for Social Networking as it takes up huge amounts of time for the individual. Many of the media options and applications, such as ITV producing videos about your product or service in the Second Life sphere may appeal to the online masses of the future. Also the PR media opportunities are great for targeting niche and young audiences online.
The bottom line for businesses is time, and we are all time poor. Certainly, as the average user spends 40 hours a month on Second Life (equivalent to a second job) this is the debilitating factor, I believe, for mainstream or “First Life” users….
Montage certainly watches with interest as to what the next big thing on Second Life will be, expansion of of EU taxes and VAT, HIPS for home owners or the resolution of its recent banking crisis that mirrored the real life troubles of Northern Rock?
Author – Matt Anderson : Read my blog
Fig1: Growth in Second Life Residents (Wikipedia)
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Comments | Leave a response
Hi Matt,
Quite a lot of businesses have been questioning the value they get from their SL investment lately, it seems.
[quote] Laughs Erik Hauser, creative director of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo’s digital agency: “Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq.” [/quote] Terra Nova, referencing Forbes Magazine.
So, there may be value in businesses setting up in SL, but it’s not guaranteed by any means.
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