This year we’ve seen many brands come and go in Virtual Worlds. Some have invested in their own worlds, other have invested in a presence within social virtual worlds. Today I want to list some of the ways users and corporations have been playing with the Metaverse, creating the following overview of Business models they used both successfully and unsuccessfully.
Inworld Economy
The creation and selling of virtual products and services to Avatars for real money. In-world brands have been hugely successful, few earning 5 to 6 figure incomes from these virtual items. These items and services only exist in the Metaverse. Examples of these businesses are Anshe Chungs ‘Dreamland‘ - Virtual Real Estate, Strokerz Toys - Sex toys and body parts, Solange - Designing virtual, digital fashion.
Business Integration
E-mail, Skype and Instant Messengers have all been integrated into our everyday uses at work. Virtual Worlds have its own set of advantages when dealing with 1 to 1 or 1 to many communications. Some corporations are on the front lines of exploring what virtual worlds can do for them. Using the advantages of communication to streamline management, internal education, business to client communication or any other application to support the business processes of any organization. Examples are IBM having virtual meetings in Second Life and Developing their own ‘Metaverse‘, and Cisco using Second Life for internal communication.
Brand Presence/Avartising
Create your off-line brand in Second Life, market real life products to virtual people, avatars. This has been the model that has gotten the most media attention and went trough a lot of ‘trial and error’ already. The failed experiments with just Brand Presence paved the way for Metaverse Naysayers to say Virtual Worlds (Second Life) is not a viable business platform. Examples are plenty, though some of the more interesting approaches are lingerie brand Carnal and the T.V. program ‘The L-Word’.
Content Creation
Corporations usually don’t have the know-how on how to create a 3d presence. Other companies have specialized in 3d communications and building content for these corporations. They advise and build the Virtual structures where other enterprises can exercise their Brand Presence. An example is Millions of Us, having created islands for Pontiac, HBO and Intel.
Services for Virtual Entrepreneurs
The buzz inside Virtual Worlds does not just create opportunities for people building content for these worlds. New applications and services have been made to facilitate all these online entrepreneurs. onRez and SLeXchange bring virtual products outside of Second Life, theLoop by the Electric Sheep company lists popular places in a website and various mash ups mix the Second Life client with web 2.0 applications such as Twitter and Wordpress.
Create your own Virtual Environment
The last option I want to list today is the various ‘brand worlds’ that have been created by various companies. Users can play and interact in a branded world to create brand affection in their specific niches (mostly children at this point). They engage with the brand in a different way, creating ‘preferred advertising’ - advertising they choose to watch. Examples are Barbie World and Coca Cola’s ‘Coke Studios‘.
Posted on: December 30, 2007 | Share on:
Abhishek Saxena on 
Sophie on 
Edita Kaye
said on December 30th
Good morning
I read your post on 6 business models for the Metaverse with great interest. I think you have done an excellent job in providing both an overview and analysis. Those of us who have been watching the rapid evolution of virtual worlds–especially this year 2007–have even more to look forward to in 2008 as you so correctly observe. I’m also very gratified that you represent a global perspective which is very refreshing especially as the globalization of virtual worlds is also going to be an enormous future trend. Thank you very much for sharing your insights.
On a separate note, I am the editor in chief iVinnie.com the number one virtual worlds news network. iVinnie is a news aggregator. Anything and everything that takes place in virtual worlds we hope comes through our site, is collected, sorted and of course, shared. My hope is to add exciting and important bloggers for the benefit of iVinnie readers. Over the next 30-days we will be redesigning the site so that it is much more news-heavy and easier to navigate. We have grown very quickly in a short time and are looking to a very bright future. I would love to have a link to your blog on iVinnie and hope that you might link back. You may reach me directly at edita@iVinnie.com Thank you for your time. Happy New Year
Kzero » Blog Archive » Marketing intel for Jan 2 said on January 2nd
[...] 6 Business Models for the Metaverse. The Digado (Digital Adoption) blog has listed out six virtual world business models. These include Business Integration, Inworld Economy (including Metabranding) and Avartising. Read the others here. [...]
Bedrijfsmodel voor Virtuele Werelden | UpTheVortex said on January 4th
[...] Digado kwam ik dit artikel tegen met de titel ‘6 Business Models for the Metaverse‘. In het artikel worden de volgende zes bedrijfsmodellen [...]
Browsing the metaverse » 6 Business Models for the Metaverse said on January 20th
[...] wrote a very nice article about possible business models for Virtual Worlds. In short, those [...]
Marketing in Virtuele Werelden « Walblog said on January 25th
[...] 6 businessmodellen voor Virtuele Werelden [...]
Games show Virtual Worlds the way | Digado said on February 9th
[...] pay monthly fees for premium services) and advertisements. A system closely related to the ‘in-world‘ economy models found in Social [...]
Wayne Porter
said on February 26th
Rick,
Great meta view…however, I think there are models yet to be explored. One of my primary focuses is “sustainability” for virtual world creators. I have several working theories and one I think will work. If it doesn’t, then we are simply all too early.
Oddly, coming from a strong marketing background, I have found most virtual content creators to be pretty bad marketers…that or they lack the time because infrastructure is not in place and traditional infrastructure will not work…not to mention meaningful metrics- there are none as far as I am concerned and if there were I doubt Linden Labs, or others, normalize the data against agents, etc. Of course the web doesn’t do that well either. :)
I have had discussions with Ansche Chung and it became apparent to me her game was tier and scale and push ultra-cheap digital goods. That is simply because the tier model is the only one that “scales” at all. Horrible in my opinion.
I don’t know why content creators (builders, scripters) fail to grasp the concepts. I note they ARE willing to listen to new concepts, which is hopeful (because I need mass to get rolling) and I think that is because they are in pain- I know they are…or maybe I am too immersed. :)
As for agencies injecting brands directly into Second Life. Most cases I have found it to be incredibly short-sighted. Of course I had the same myopia at first, but it became clear to me (social network theory) that despite hardware or grid limitations- high immersion environments really do not scale. They can’t on a level one would desire because of neocortex limitations.
Higher the Immersion less the Scale.
regards,
Wayne
Rick van der Wal
said on February 26th
Hello Wayne, thank you for your reply!
I certainly agree, I’ve already extended the list to 15 applications (http://digado.nl/15-applications-of-the-metaverse.html) but there will be more, more niche or simply applications yet to be developed technically or socially.
The brands entering second life are very much part of the same issue, finding application rather than creating portfolio sites no one is interest in. The ’short sightedness of the developing side’ is one part riding the hype, one part believing it would be a valuable contribution just because its ‘professional’ or ‘pretty’ - one part experimenting and exploring new media. I don’t blame them for trying the obvious, and into 2008 I think we can certainly see progression from the ESC after their successful L-Word campaign, Millions of Us (their latest hospital build did find both application, just not for the people in SL, but for their own niche) and RRR shifting their focus to the obvious ROI program of the Virtual Workplace. All applications - using the platform rather than using the 1.5 million people inside (or as Massively puts it, mistaking the medium for the market)
There is even more of this going in in Active Worlds behind closed doors, businesses constantly finding the application of the immersive platform.
I think its part of the opportunity of the marketer today to find these applications that benefit the consumers of brands, and present them to their niches. This way you end up with a win-win situation - application for the consumer, and an audience for the brands at the same time in this specific business (the marketing of RL brands in SL).
Drunk Girl Undressing
said on August 4th
ehh. interesting )