Corporations leaving...good thing or bad?

Wonder if Torley will write a blog responding these articles as well?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/14/will-the-last-corporation-leaving-second-life-please-turn-off-the-light/

EXCERPT: The LA Times has an interesting article up on the failure of real life businesses in Second Life. The crux of the piece is that despite the hype, real life businesses are closing down their Second Life outposts due to little to no interest in them.

The reasons for the failures are open to debate; from firms not engaging Second Life citizens, through to simply a lack of actual people using Second Life (the LA Times says it peaks at 40,000 users at any one given time).

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-secondlife14jul14,1,3135510.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Looking at how many avatars you can fit on a sim, no company should ever have thought SL would be a revenue stream. The only thing a Second Life presence ever had going for it was chance for companies to get a press release picked up by mainstream media. Now that the press releases don't get picked up, the businesses are picking up and leaving.

IMO, the Germany scandal is when SL jumped the shark. That taint has had a much bigger impact than it seemed it would at the time.

Another factor: Performance issues. I advised our advertising agency's clients against coming to SL because there was no way to make sure any event would not be a laggy crashy disaster.

When Edwards' campaign area got trashed it pointed to more vulnerabilities.

I don't think the Germany scandal affected the corps one little bit.

The story is a little misleading. Companies come and go. IBM are expanding their virtual world presence according to that article and opening up in Entropia universe. Didn't playboy just open an island?

I think the lack of in-game advertising is another factor. For example, the article references American Apparel. When you bring a company like that into Second Life, you have to understand that there are already heavyweight players that are on top of the food chain. Unless you can get your message out, you're really not going to get that constant flow of traffic that you seem to want. I remember last year sometime reading an article in one of the SL newspapers that said American Apparel was planning on opening a store. It didn't mention the location because it wasn't open yet.

Never heard about it again until this article today. I had totally forgotten about it.

Some of these RL companies think that all they need to do is throw up a building, put a few articles of clothing in it, and sit back and reap the rewards that are sure to come to them on their own. But it doesn't work that way, in either RL or SL. It's a competitive market.

Best Buy Geek Squad Island? This is the first I've heard of it. I'm going to assume they were there to give out computer advice? Or do they sell RL computers?

IBM? I know they have a bunch of islands, but I was under the impression that it was just for internal IBM things, a sort of virtual campus for their employees. If there's more to it, I haven't heard. I recall seeing a Dell booth at a technology expo I went to in SL a couple months back, but that's it.

The article points to a couple of instances of griefing in SL that appear to be targeting RL corporations, but to be honest, griefing happens nearly everywhere in SL at some time or another, and all to various degrees. Most attacks are fairly random, and the article doesn't explain exactly how they know these attacks were specifically targeting the RL businesses.

It's only my personal opinion, of course, but I would hazard to guess that most SL residents are ambivalent, or even completely oblivious to the RL corporations that have come into SL. If they made a product that people wanted, and let people actually know about it, they might see some better returns. But I don't think SL will ever be the cash cow for them that they were expecting.

Plus a lot of people don't want the corporate noise here. Personally they have absolutely nothing to offer of interest to me here.

Who are "alot of people"? Do you know these people personally?

Yes...we all meet every week in a basement in Cleveland.

Corporations, whether you like them or dislike them, can often times make or break something. I get so sick of seeing ads in my games, yet at the same time usually those ads are funding the games I love to play.

Second Life doesn't necessarily need that type of funding, but if major corporations are pulling out, it sends red flags to others. They may still take the plunge as it were, but be much more cautious. What I'd really love is for corporations like that to read the forums, and view what the average resident has to say about SL themselves. They didn't even bother, and honestly I didn't find out exactly which corporations were even on SL (except IBM, I have a close relative that works there) until most of them had pulled out. They themselves handled that poorly, and it's why it failed for them.

Cleveland. Christ. You're scaring me Brenda.

Then my work here is done.

The exact same thing happened with the web. There was an initial "mad rush" to the internet by large corporations. Everyone had a domain and a page, with little more than their phone number and address. There were alot if initial failures, but eventually they bounced back as the web matured, and today, the web is full of content and functionality. I more or less expected the same thing this time around. Eventually, as more business related abilities come to SL, they will return.

This seems normal to me. Most of the first wave had no clue and just followed the publicity. The next wave will actually have something in mind.

Businesses that seem successful to me include Pontiac, which embraced the Second Life car scene and has built up a lot of good will by introducing real life small businesses to SL by including them in Motorati.

The article shows SL in a realistic light. I especially like the last paragraph:



It's true, the 8 million users are a lie. It's true, product placement in SL only makes sense because SL is (currently) often mentioned in the media, along with some company names. But one can't say that SL isn't successful. Even with only 40,000 users at a time, it's a profitable online world. Everquest 1 only had approx. 250,000 users in their heydays, and I doubt that the number of concurrent users was higher than 40k.

What LL need to realize though: it's us who create their revenue. The mushrooms that they leave in the dark, but who pay nonetheless. Island sales going well, new mainland continent almost sold out, another continent to be added soon... we mushrooms pay for that, not short-time phenomena like a virtual Adidas shop or Nissan island.

If SL can be this successful, with a userbase as large as the old Everquest, despite having the crappiest customer service ever – imagine what LL could achieve with a good customer service and an open ear for their customer's wishes.

Yes...........that is true. However, the internet was (and remains) much, much more stable. Stability needs to be addressed..........RIGHT NOW. Not after all the bells and whistles are in place. No corporation is going to get very involved in a platform that roughly a third of the users can't reliabaly use. Way too many crashes and problems like what the Australians are experiencing right now.........being locked out because they cannot connect to the download site to get the mandatory update.

I like this piece. thank you for sharing it

Usagi

Not forgetting about the main purpose people play here. "CAMPING"

I think it's too early to characterise any business entry and exit from Second Life as a "failure". I was talking with a friend this morning about the LAT article, and he reminded me that IBM for example takes on quite a few initiatives that sortof fade away over time.. Research is what it boils down to for IBM. They have the financial and manpower resources to build out 30 sims, and figure out sortof on the fly how to use them.

Another pot of this corporate stew boils down to expectations, or criteria for success, and I think a good many companies coming into Second Life aren't well led in that area by the firms who develop their presence, or for that matter by the folks who liaison on behalf of their company with these firms. There is perhaps also the fact that Linden Lab haven't really positioned the platform, or developed a set of services tailored to the needs/interests of corporate presence in Second Life.

Only one company comes to mind which actually had a tangible business objective coming into Second Life and developing a presence, and that's Starwood Hotels. The Aloft Hotel project was a perfect match for the Second Life platform, as it enabled them to build something Residents could touch, feel, move around in and interact with. At the conclusion of the project, Starwood walked away with suggestions that they could, and ostensibly will, incorporate into the real world design of the property. I only wonder if they're bailing too soon.

The problem seems to me to be a lack of engagement or connection with the community. As pretty and neat as the Dell islands are, for example, it's pretty clear that they simply do not engage Residents at any practical level. That isn't necessarily the fault of Dell, nor their in world developer, but more that those connection points between corporate presence and community aren't well defined to begin with.

I believe, and strongly so, that there is plenty of space in this platform for our corporate brethren. For it to be made a viable platform for them, and at the same time preserve the social network and micro economy that Second Life is to its Residents today, Linden Lab needs to develop these points of connection. What they are, I don't yet know, but without them, without clear and meaningful connection to and engagement with the Second Life community, it isn't likely that businesses will succeed within the platform.

Actually I'm surprised that any of you started businesses in SL, considering how unstable SL is. Sure the unstableness of SL doesn't mean as much to a camper like me that tries not to spend an single real dime on SL. Except of course the electric bill for running my computer all day to camp. (Although, I would be devistated if I opened up my inventory one day and discovered a lot of the avatars I spent days camping for suddenly went up in smoke. ) But for you business people, you've probably sunk hundreds if not thousands of real dollars into SL. If I were spending all that money I would expect/demand rock solid performance, and top of the line customer service, too.
Um, if they read what the average resident thinks of SL in the forums, they would run not walk from SL.

Good riddance. I'm glad they (or the companies they paid) never understood SL. They treated it like a website where they built it, never did anything with it, and so people didn't show up.

As for American Apparal... who's the bloody moron that took their money to get them into SL? The fashion biz here is extremly cutthroat so of course their baddly made, over priced, and never updated items never sold.

Just like taht companies are leaving? um.........why al of the sudden? or has that been a trend during a x period of time?

I'll have what Usagi's having.

IBM ( who really knows if thats true or not ) in name at least has a series of 11+ islands.


Benz, Ben & Jerry`s Ice Cream, NBA, STA Travel, Manpower, Toyota, etc etc.......

Nice listing a? But really for how long?

The corporations have always been a love/hate for me. The former for necessity, the latter for everything else.

If anything, we (and by we, I mean all os u, though mostly LL) need them here. Not s much for their money, but for the names they bring to the table, and the new users that come in with them. For better or worse, it's new users that drive a lot of the market. Likewise, it is good for LL to be able to point to the IBMs and say "see? we're the legitimate heirs to the Web!"

But the corporations have never understood SL. n much the same way a newbie doesn't know how to detach that box from their he... hand.They feel like they know it all due to the web, and feel no need to learn - yet SL can have a very steep learning curve, particularly what they wish to do with it.

The corporations want a "web page," or at least a "banner ad." This is how they think -- consider Time magazines assessment of the "Web Site" that is the Metaverse we call Second Life. The concept is unclear. That it is unclear to these corporations is a failing of LL and all of us to convey what we are about.

I recall a few months back talking to Adam Reuters, asking why Reuters does not cover more of the social and lifestyle aspects of SL. His take? Reuters only covered business.

Ironically, if the businesses actually paid attention to those aspects in here, they'd be more successful. Yet the importance of the social aspects of SL are lost on the mainstream business. They are in the business of selling their product, not getting touchy feely.

There should be room for both in these regions. Make a place people want to see, staff it with enthusiastic people, and create events and activities that will being them back again and again. It's a model I used to use back on an online service, an it worked super well. But provide a static, unchanging locale with no-one present and no activities beyond whatever you've set down for people to tinker with, an you are doomed past the initial rush to check out the new toy.

So some of these leave. They got their bang out of their buck, but they don't see any future value. And why should they? They clearly built for that bang, and made no allowances for any long-term placement in SL.

Think of the places you visit, an why you do, and think of the events you attend. Why do you go to them, and what is the value to you? How many of those were corporate-owned or ran? Any of them?

Now imagine what these places cold have done if they put their resources behind something you already like, and made it better. Dat's the boat they missed.

Mari

Problems is the Corp people don`t have a idea how SL is played/and or used. Hence failure occures when the lack of understand and relies on LLABS to help them understand that part of sl. But when said Corperation does not get such support, then they realize its too late........

Usagi

Yes I believe most RL corporations come to SL with many of the same misconceptions about what makes this place tic that the media have been perpetuating all along.

Yes I believe that many of these RL corps. throw some money into SL as a test-the-waters advertising method, like a drive around the city billboard on the back of a truck. If it works, great, if not, it's only a couple of thousand dollars, bfd.

Yes I think for the most part RL corps. are unable or unwilling to offer SL residents compelling reasons to "engage" with whatever offerings they present. As lovely as some of the builds are, as clever and fun they may be for a first visit in some instances, they're missing the ONE overriding essential ingredient to what makes any place in SL worthwhile. PEOPLE.

Without folks to hang out with, interact with and share the experience put forth by these corporations, one ends up with a rather sterile build. 2 - 15 minutes diversion, ONCE, tops.

All of that aside, as an erstwhile content creator, I'd much rather support an SL-based business any day, and frankly, most of the brands that have come into SL are the same crassly advertised brands I avoid RL. Why the heck would I care about them in here, esp. when they're competing with me and my friends on what was once a much more level playing field?

I'm glad they don't get it, as was mentioned earlier. Unless they're able to come into SL and approach this world as we do, adding to what is here instead of taking from it, I doubt they'll "get it" ever. And that's ok. Let me sell my lil silly outfits for next to no overhead and enjoy my clothing designer dream. Let me buy at SL economically balance prices outfits that take advantage of the non-reality that is SL. These are things that make me happy here.

I don't wear clothes with logos IRL I'm sure as you know what not gonna do that here (well ok, RadioRadio logo but hehehe that's different, and not all the time)!

Let them come, let them hire folks and pay them ROYALLY to build whatever it is they want. And let those sims sit like empty museums. Think of it as a cash pool for some SL residents and for LL, they'll get that sim rent and all for little resource usage. They might pay for some server upgrades or new staff or something really usefull for all of us. It could happen (best Judy Tenuta voice there)!

Precisely. There is little that truly explains to them what is going on here and, furthermore, I would argue that such is rarely if ever relayed to them in the first place.

The corporations who will be successful in SL are those with decision makers who are passionate about the world, and can shape the way their RL company can be involved with SL. Until then, it's going to be "vending machines with cars inside."

Mari