"Second Life" : a successful application of Web 2.0

Résumé du document

"Second Life" is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that was launched on June 23, 2003. It enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residents refer to as the grid. "Second Life" caters to users aged over eighteen, while its sister site Teen Second Life is restricted to users aged between thirteen and eighteen. In this case study we will talk about Second Life itself, and discuss in detail how this model is viable and profitable, the competition, the financial data and the future openings.

Extraits

[...] Second Life Website). We can see that the total number of users is huge whereas the numbers of actives users is really low in comparison to the total. Only 10% logged in during the last two months. This could be attributed to the curiosity 6 Page 7 of 28 of people when the website launched. However the number of connections is still important. Users, trough their avatars are offered the possibility to live a parallel life trough the application. Where the business model is interesting is that the application has its own currency which is the linden dollar, this currency works like any other currency and respects money charts, etc . [...]

[...] "Second Life" : a successful application of Web 2.0 SECOND LIFE CASE STUDY Page 2 of 28 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREAMBLE . P03 INTRODUCTION . P04 I. PROBLEM SOLVED/NEED MET . P05 II. BUSINESS MODEL . P06 III. HISTORY/EVOLUTION OF THE COMPANY/APPLICATION . P11 IV. FUNDING SOURCES, CHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL PLAN, ETC . [...]

[...] Innovation and originality are the key components to succeed in the webmarketing that is why innovative ideas appear on S L. For example a beauty contest has been organized by Lacoste in 2007. All those decisions have had great results. And many others choices brought Second Life where it is right now. The decision makers have brought this project to the leading position on the sector with a viable and profitable business model. However other decisions had bad results and we are going to tell about some of them E-Business Page 16 of 28 The Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" This was a place where people could invest in The Second Life Projects real dollars after having changed them into $Linden. [...]

[...] We can already imagine the evolution of the application. For example it would be possible to connect its own server on the grid to expand S L world. This will give birth to a gigantic world created from open source. We can also imagine the innovative marketing that will appear on Second Life. Even if the number of users will keep growing in an important manner over the ten coming years the growth will be less important because of the evolution of technologies. [...]

[...] This shows the serious character of the application in comparison to the competition. The goods exchanges justify the great shape of the 24 E-Business Page 25 of 28 application. People trust in it and feel secure using their money trough the application. IX. OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE Based on the financial data we can imagine that Second Life has a great future in front of it. Because of its unique character and the duty of care the creator put in this project. [...]