After getting in-world last night, I was exposed to some of what Second Life has to offer. As mentioned in some of the previous blogs, the possibilities seem to be endless. I had mentioned yesterday in class that I am interested in researching and possibly developing some business ideas within Second Life. It is apparent that their currently exist some booming businesses in-world (various sales of apparel, vehicles, etc.). I'm not sure how difficult these are to produce or how profitable they can be, but I think a new business would be a great way for our class to put something innovative into Second Life.
Being that I have only been in-world since yesterday, I do not know how to research existing business or companies. One idea that I have is to produce a casino or sportsbook casino. If there were a way for people to wager on real-life sporting events through Second Life, I believe that would be a booming business. The popularity of poker could obviously also be very attractive. I'm not sure if there would be legal issues with these types of ideas or if they already exist, but if anyone has information or ideas, please respond.
6 comments:
Being a finance grad student, my obvious focus is on how to create added wealth through SL. I have only been in world for about 2 hours so far but it is becoming more interesting every time I log on. I would probably be on more if microsoft had never built vista and it didnt crash every 20 min. NE ways I think the idea of creating businesses inside SL is great. According to class yesterday there are only 600,000 active users, compare that to the 6 billion people on the planet and its miniscule. Although it seems that alot of businesses have already been created including stockmarkets, banks, exotics, shops, etc. With the growth of SL, there is plenty of room to add more ideas and improve on existing ones. I honestly would be against trying to "reinvent" the wheel in only one semester and would instead try to take businesses that are already out there and try to make them better. Just like ice, I'm not exactly sure yet how the monetary system works yet and what the United States legality is behind NE of it, but thats why I am in this class...to learn. Maybe we will all walk away from this semster millionaires!!! who knows...
Haha! becoming a millionaire in SL is probably as hard as doing it in RL! or at least takes the same amount of effort and perseverance. A millionaire in Linden? hmmm, a little closer.
As you say there are a lot of business already in SL, some thriving some languishing just as in RL. It makes sense to investigate what is already there and how it works. You will find tons of information both in World as well as in the SL site and associated blogs, wikis etc.
Here is one example:
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/about.html
There are other "newspapers" some of them only in World, some outside of it like this which is particularly interesting since its editor is Peter Ludlow.Aas you will see from the link I sent you, you can read about cyber-prostitution, scams and even murder in SL!
Enjoy the BNW.
About SL statistics for you number guys:
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
lists 11 million total residents (growing quasi exponentially) although it is true that there are from 600 to 800,000 active in the past couple of months but it is related to both the total population and out of World awareness and the fact that many islands, businesses, organizations that intended a presence in SL have, at least temporarily drop the ball for a variety of reasons, one of which is (DUH!) that it is not as easy as they expected (WHAT did they expect!)
Here's a list of businesses and organizations in second life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Businesses_and_Organizations_in_Second_Life).
Starting a business is a great idea, and this list should help you find products/services that are missing/needed in world
I think I have an idea that may be a GOLDMINE (doesn't everyone?)in second life and I dont think it exists in SL yet (although I have not been through in my search efforts). I think not only would current SL residents utilize the service but with proper planning and marketing it might bring MANY new people into SL just to utilize the service! Which of course is win-win for everyone!
The things that hold me back are: 1) My inexperience with the world, 2) capital, 3)technical knowhow, 4) marketing expertise, and most pertinent 5) time (until I finish my dissertation anyway). However, It was hard not to notice that many of the people who have many of these characteristics were in this class. Hmmmmm.
Quasi,
Maybe your team can start your business as part of the class???!?
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