Going Out of Business Sale: 40% off all Second Life Islands

This past week I participated in a session at BlogPhiladelphia called, "Virtual Worlds and Second Life." Don Bain from the electric sheep company (makers of corporate virtual worlds) discussed mainly Second Life and how companies are using the tool.

We spent most of the session on the "Ben & Jerry's" island. During the session, we were able to fly around, look at a wall of the history of B&J, and chat with other people. Wait, that was one person during the entire 30 minute session. I asked what it cost to create the island and Don nodded when I suggested $50k.

Don also noted that we are only in the first inning of virtual worlds. I agree with his statement. It reminds me a bit of when the Web first started to commercialize. "Who would use the Web to buy insurance" is a statement I heard several times from an executive at an insurance company.

Alana Semuels has a column in the LATimes today discussing marketers backing out of Second Life.

Some interesting quotes include:

"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal. McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical hotels.

Between May and June, the population of active avatars declined 2.5%, and the volume of U.S. money exchanged within the world fell from a high of $7.3 million in March to $6.8 million in June.

Wagner James Au discusses 5 business myths about Second Life. Duncan then provides a cost summary for creating a business in Second Life. He notes, "the CPM cost for businesses on Second Life is insane: simply even for the very best, the figures don’t add up." But Duncan misses the point, these first movers into SL don't care about the CPM, they care about the buzz of being first.

It seems many companies tried Second Life and have moved on. As virtual worlds move forward into the later innings, more trial and success/failure will take place. In my opinion, Second Life is nothing more than a pretty IRC/Mud but some think it's the next version of the Web. I don't get it, but clearly some do.