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.

Arguably the height of virtual business optimism, the late 90’s enjoyed unprecedented success for internet based companies whose stock soared based not so much on their company’s platform or numbers, but on the prefix “e-“ or suffix “.com” that attached to their name.  So commonplace was it for investors to sink money into the stocks of under-evaluated online operations, the term “prefix investing” made its way into Wall Street vernacular.  Mainstay evaluation techniques (i.e. price-to-earnings ratio) were thrown to the wind as stockholders banked on technological advancements to overcome the time tested benchmarks of success.

E-business owners, financed by quick with the wallet venture capitalists, saw online giants Google and Amazon take years to turn initial profits before achieving their superpower status.  Thus, when early numbers reported losses, spending continued as normal with too much faith and not enough discretion.  The prevailing school of thought believed that if you could expand your consumer base to reach a large quantity quickly, future profits and success were inevitable.  Ignorant to the obvious red flags, instant millionaires, made from soaring stocks and internet fortunes, tried to turn all their new found wealth into even more by investing everything back in to even more dot-com upstarts.

When the stock market hit a bumpy road in year 2000, owners and investors with all their money tied up stocks saw their assets quickly dwindle, with millions of dollars disappearing overnight.  Once companies quickly burned through their initial venture capital investment thanks to poor planning and exorbitant spending, still unable show signs of turning a profit and with no other outside investors looking to join in, they were forced to shut their doors as quickly as they’d opened.

Amazon has become a household name among pretty much any computer literate family in America, but this kind of mainstream recognition did not happen overnight.  What we now know as Amazon.com was actually founded 16 years ago, in 1994, by Jeffrey P. Bezos.  The idea was to create an online bookstore, but as time would tell, this was only the starting point of much loftier aspirations.  The website first launched online a year later in 1995, under its original name “Cadabra.com.”  At a time before online shopping was commonplace, Bezos had the innovative mind to look at the internet not as intimidating wilderness but as a vast, bountiful forum in which business could be conducted sans the inherent limitations of the typical brick and mortar company.  Without having to carry a copy of every title in a bevy of consumer accessible stores, the internet allowed for Bezos’ upstart bookstore to make a wider variety of books available to the public for purchase.  In a sense, the new company’s capacity for breadth of selection was only just being realized, expanding to sell everything from home improvement products to electronics.  The ingenuity behind Amazon’s zShops (now Amazon Marketplace) and Auctions was the driving goal to offer a one stop shop where consumers could find any item their heart desired.

Amazon’s insatiable entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the impressive scope of the operation just a few years after its launch, led Time Magazine to honor founder Bezos as its Person of the Year for 1999, citing his influence in popularizing online shopping, now the bread and butter of the virtual business world.

As a business grows to meet these new larger scale demands, this can lead to the outsourcing of many traditional business functions such as marketing, tech support, even training.  This outsourcing is often also done through online communication in order to cut down on overhead expenses.  All in all, virtual business tactics often prove to be cheaper solutions than the typical face to face interactions old school business relied on.  This isn’t to say business men and women are forced to deal with unfamiliar faces or practical strangers.  The old adage “its not business, its personal” is unfairly exaggerated when its applied to virtual business and internet commerce.  In today’s market, companies and clients can foster fully healthy, working relationships without wasting unnecessary time and resources on a less convenient rendezvous.  Communication technology breakthroughs have allowed for advanced teleconferencing equipment and even live streaming video conferencing, as uninterrupted as it would be if it were just two people in a room.

In an increasingly technologically centered world, businesses are becoming more “virtual” than ever.  In fact, in most states it is completely lawful to collaborate with other parties, assembling online, and agree to work together towards a for-profit goal, all without ever having to come together in any sort of physical capacity.  In such a way, truly virtual corporations have been formed.  Virtual business has only truly taken off in the past decade as consumers are finally feeling confident enough in their internet security, trusting well established websites and purchase intermediaries with valuable credit card and account information.  Systems such as Paypal have added to the ease and reliability with which online payments can be made, relaxing concerns on both vendor and buyer ends that payments will be received and accurately recorded.  The stigma and danger that was once regularly associated with even the simplest forms of internet shopping has given way to a new sense of normalcy as more and more people conduct business without ever coming face to face.