Second Life Business Planning Competition

Advertisers often say that people need seven or eight exposures to a new product in order to really take notice. This is approximately the number of times I heard about Second Life before I decided to give it a try.

Second Life [1] is a 3-D virtual world built and owned by its residents. Second Life launched to the public in 2003, and has grown dramatically since then. Currently, the site has nearly 1.7 million members/inhabitants worldwide.

Many people believe the Second Life will have major economic impact as marketers use the venue to generate brand awareness and sales. For instance, American Apparel, a clothing brand with 80 retail locations in the U.S., built/launched a virtual store on a private island in Second Life. Likewise, Pontiac is creating a Second Life dealership that will sell make-believe cars.

With the site still relatively small in Internet terms, there is still a huge opportunity to create products/services for it and to set up shops. In fact, a business plan [2] competition was recently announced to promote this concept. Specifically, The Electric Sheep Co., Second Life’s largest third-party developer, and public relations firm Edelman, recently announced a business plan competition that seeks to reward entrepreneurs who come up with the most creative ideas for businesses to run in Second Life.

While the prize money will be in Linden dollars (the official currency of Second Life), these dollars do have some US currency value. Also the PR exposure from winning this competition will have real financial benefit. Click here to learn more about the competition [3].

I just signed up for Second Life and am clearly a newbie. Have any of you been a member for a while? What do you think the economic impact of Second Life will be? I look forward to your comments.