Second Life or Advertiser's Paradise?

As you talk about globalization today, what is it that you come to think of? Previously, trading goods with Japan and Russia is what came to my mind. However, information technology has transformed the word "globalization" into much, much more. Just ask Anshe Chung. Two years ago she had an idea. Today, she along with 17 others on board, have created a booming land development business. She, herself has a beautiful Chinese country house with polished wood flooring and beautiful landscape to boot. The catch is that it doesn't actually exist. Better yet it does exist, but merely as pixels in a virtual world better known as Second life. An article entitled “My Virtual Life” (BusinessWeek online, May 1, 2006) describes Chung’s company and Second life.
Chung's firm, Linden Lab, has two physical locations; a base in China and a secondary location in San Francisco. However, its real location is one that cannot be pointed to on a map. This is the “fake” world that consumers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build virtual houses, land, and synthetic currency in exchange for real U.S. currency…around $250,000 to be exact. You may ask yourself, what is the point of all this? It is a form of entertainment, and even more. As of 2003, Linden Lab made anything you build online, legally yours in real life. That’s right; you actually have property rights to your Second life estates.
If you think about it, this define globalization to a T. The firm, which is based in China, is where the U.S. dollars eventually end up. Moreover, these dollars are coming out of U.S. citizens' pockets. In turn, this creates a huge opportunity for U.S. firms. What firms exactly? How about Marketing and Advertising firms. Just as Myspace and Facebook so quickly became infested with advertisers, it can be safely assumed that Second life advertising space will soon be highly sought after.
Did you know that every time you make a click on Google, the company records your "click." This little piece of information helps them know what you like to look at and what information you view the most. This can also apply in the Second life environment, only on a much higher level. This is because Second life allows you to do whatever it is that you want. Whether it be a house that you build in “Linden land” or how much money you physically spend, marketing research firms can pay to have access to this information and relate it to real life decisions.
Advertisers also have a huge opportunity. Based on the article, one man actually paid $100,000 dollars in real U.S. currency to have his own space station. He looked at it as an investment. Picture a space museum or even NASA having an advertisement in that Second life space station. Talk about advertising to a target market.
Second life technology has opened up many more doors than just that of entertainment. There are vast opportunities for other companies in many industries to utilize this technology for increasing profitability. So if you automatically assume that Second life is for the birds, think again.