Virtual Business Intelligence: The Enterprise in Second Life and other Virtual Worlds

A growing number of businesses are exploring commercial opportunities in a variety of virtual worlds, including Second Life, Gaia, and Whyville, among others.

KZERO Research has prepared a chart which lists the corporations and the Virtual Worlds that they are creating a presence in.

From the report:

“Who’s the most adventurous marketer? Toyota, with projects involving Second Life (Scion City), There, Gaia, Whyville (Financial Services) and they’ve even used a MMOG, World of Warcraft, in some TV advertising.

From a metaverse perspective, the number of brands in There is increasing, with initiatives from CosmoGIRL, Coca-Cola and others (read more about There). Kaneva is also seeing activity.

What’s most interesting here is the activity in younger worlds such as Gaia and Whyville as well as the entrance of brands into worlds currently in beta - brands are realising there’s multiple options when it comes to virtual worlds. Vidal Sassoon and Intel have already announced plans to enter HiPiHi. Expect this trend to continue, particularly for tactical (sometimes fixed-length) marketing campaigns. The recent WWE campaign in Gaia is a good example of this.

This trend is also being reflected by subtle changes in the positioning of Metaverse Development Companies (MDC’s) - organisations providing in-world services to real world brands. K Zero is also seeing (and advocating) a revised focus across the spectrum of virtual worlds, with projects in development in four different metaverses.”

I consider this a fascinating market segment to cover, and I’ll continue to post high value resources in the Virtual Enterprise space at this blog.