I attended a very interesting event with a presentation around the topic "Virtual Worlds and Entrepreneurship" at the IVA center in Stockholm, Sep. 22.
Guest speaker was Robin Teigland, Associate professor at Stockholm School of Economics (SSES), http://www.hhs.se
Here are som quick facts (but I encourage you to view the embedded presentation).
- 579 M users
- 68 MUSD invested in 1Q 2009
- Tweens biggest user group
- 39% increase in userbase from Q1
- Games and strategy players have started incorporating on their resumes/CVs facts about what they manage and are capable of doing in the virtual world
- 2 BUSD in micro transactions
- One example, Mindark's Entropia Universe has got 780k users, 420 MUSD in revenue AND a real and virtual bank
- Another examle of how you can make money, one guy sold the virtual Asteroid Space Resort for 100k USD in 2005
Some Chinese sites on the subject;
Robin and SSES are using Linden labs' Second Life services, http://www.secondlife.com for education, research and cooperation with other universities. See as one example the SSE Island area on SecondLife.
The use of 3d virtual worlds will expand to develop demos, showcases and training programs. IBM is e.g. using it to design "green" data centers.
Some company examples; IBM island and Accenture island, for more information about research contact robin.teigland at hhs.se
http://www.knowledgenetworking.org
http://www.slideshare.net/eteigland
http://www.secondlife.com
