Virtual Business in a Purely Virtual World
The “virtual” portion of the term virtual business is actually returning closer the words original roots as technology and society’s obsession with computer driven socially interactivity increases. As virtual business has evolved from mere simulation to real money transaction, the spheres in which it takes place is creeping back to now include the non real. While gamers have long spent money on in-game upgrades with no tangible, physical manifestations, transactions are now being completed in a completely virtual world with its only ties to reality being the account information used to finance the transaction and the fingertips used to punch in the numbers. The cult phenomenon of Second Life, a fully animated internet accessible realm of possibility in which users interact through customizable avatars, has opened a new door through which real people are making money by supplying products for fully fictional demands.
Launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life differs from the common computer game. With no character goals or objectives and a very limited number of rules (much of which mirror similar copyright and indecency in the real world), Second Life presents a carefree caricature of modern society, not only alleviating the pressures and responsibilities of “First Life” but enhancing the everyday with the ability to fly. As of January 2010, 18 million accounts worldwide were living auxiliary second lives, providing quite the consumer base for entrepreneurs to take advantage of. Linden Lab estimates that approximately 64,000 users turn a profit in the Second Life economy in a given year, however the majority fail to make more than $10. There have been larger scale success stories with just over 200 users banking $5,000 a year, a few of whom are rumored to have made over $1,000,000. Money is made by selling virtual products and services in addition to real estate within the second life arena. Second Life supports a fairly stable currency, known as the Linden Dollar (LD), valued at around 250 LDs to 1 US Dollar.