Businesses abandon Second Life
Posted 26 July 2007 at 8:44AM by Simon Dickson in Doing business online
Not so long ago, Second Life was the next big thing in marketing: a 3D virtual world where people designed their own avatars, flew from island to island, and spent real money on non-existent things. Big brands set up online shops, comedians and musicians did virtual shows, Reuters even appointed a Second Life bureau chief.
But now, it seems, the buzz has moved elsewhere, and the knives are out for Second Life. A widely-quoted article in the Los Angeles Times declared: 'Four years after Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.'
Ethical clothing chain American Apparel opened a Second Life shop to great fanfare in June 2006. Now its website declares:
It's been quite a year. We've had thousands of visitors from all over the world and made a ton of new friends, seen some interesting things from furry folks to virtual terrorism, caused a bit of a clamor, and sold some virtual t-shirts and it's been great. But we feel like our time is up here. So we're closing our doors on Lerappa Island for now.
They aren't the only ones: the Los Angeles Times piece noted a number of big-name brands whose spaces were either empty, abandoned or closed. Time Magazine even went so far as to name it one of the five worst websites. 'Visually, this vast virtual world can be quite impressive,' it said, 'but it's notoriously slow to load and difficult to navigate, even with a broadband connection. The corporate world's embrace of the place as a venue for staff meetings and training sessions does seem to lend Second Life a layer of legitimacy. But maybe it's a case of some CEOs trying too hard to be hip.'
The Reuters correspondent reports that 'the number of active Second Life users declined 2.5 percent to 495,000 in June. It was unclear if the decrease in active users reflected a seasonal slump or a broader downturn. The number of hours spent in Second Life climbed 5 percent, the lowest percentage increase since December, 2006.'
Some defiantly claim that Second Life is often misrepresented; but there's little argument that the hype and frenzied excitement of this time last year has come and gone.
Tags: american apparel, reuters, second life, virtual reality
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Comments
2. At July 27, 2007 1:04 PM, Ade m-c wrote:
This is still underestimating the most crucial aspect of SL: approachability. In Facebook, you are limited on a linear basis, and the excitement ends quickly. But with Second Life, the world is your oyster and meeting new people and new events are possible. In time people will return to SL, if ever they truly departed from it. Be ready.
3. At July 29, 2007 8:29 PM, DavidM wrote:
This week's Marketing Week had an article about brands and Second Life.
Their take was that brands are realising they need to be on multiple virtual worlds to capture different audiences rather than just on Second Life, so the relative importance of that site has fallen.
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1. At July 26, 2007 4:49 PM, J G Dawson wrote: