Jennifer Foreshew | August 05, 2008
THE huge cost in time and energy to companies trying to conduct business in the Second Life virtual reality program has not translated into customers.
Virtual reality site Second Life has not lived up to expectations
Many businesses are closing their sites in the virtual work, a study finds.
The research shows companies had purchased land in Second Life and created "amazing, innovative" interactive areas to attract avatars, with features such as games, competitions, virtual cinema screenings and more, but there was little traffic to the sites.
The qualitative study by Kim MacKenzie, a postgraduate student in Queensland University of Technology's accountancy school of the business faculty, was part of her honours thesis last year.
Ms MacKenzie focused on 20 international corporations, such as Intel, AOL and Coca Cola, that were conducting business in Second Life.
MacKenzie, currently undertaking a PhD study of the uptake of Web 2.0 technology by Australian organisations, said only one of the 20 firms used a digital agent and most of those she studied had closed their Second Life sites.
"These firms had gone to a lot of trouble to establish really interesting and quite stimulating settings, but because in a virtual setting you can see who is in there, unlike the internet, they knew these spaces were empty of avatars," she said. "Commercial firms, to date, have dipped in and it appears they have dipped out because most of those sites have been shut down."
Ms MacKenzie said Second Life was still evolving as a platform and needed critical criteria in place to be ready for commercial activity. "The actual Second Life setting is going to require either an adaptation or a new commercial virtual marketplace controlled by commercial parameters that you need for safe and secure business activity to happen on the internet," she said. "Once the right setting is there, it will explode."
Ms MacKenzie said the right commercial setting must be backed by an awareness campaign to get users on board.
One of Australia's earliest corporate entrants to Second Life is Telstra's BigPond division, which has maintained a popular virtual presence known as The Pond.
It features Australian icons such as the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Telstra BigPond spokesman Peter Habib said BigPond's Second Life site had hosted its own registration process and continued to experience growth, since it was set up in March 2007.
"BigPond has 16 islands in Second Life and five of these are exclusively residential, with almost 100 per cent occupancy rates," he said.