While some are suggesting Linden Labs is suffocating Second Life, and holding a meeting (in Second Life, of course) to discuss it, others are wondering (and I’m among them) why companies are marketing in Second Life given the tiny population and small numbers of sales for those who’ve tried it:
The virtual branded locations that sounded so impressive in the pages of BusinessWeek are basic and devoid of visitors. … American Apparel has all but given up on its virtual store, citing the criticism it has received and “insignificant” sales.
Is it like a Gold Rush, and they have to stake their claim before someone else gets it? Maybe, maybe not… but shouldn’t the priority of marketing people be to push their product where there’s an actual audience?
If SL is really becoming so deserted, I wonder if it has virtual tumbleweeds?
When you think about it, most of the www is “deserted” for most of the time.
Think about all those web pages that are not being looked, once you get away from the front pages of portals.
Is the difference that in SecondLife, this is really noticeable?
If the retail world is evolving to provide narrower and narrower niches (rather than mass marketing) maybe one problem iis that SL is a mass market solution.
It’s very pretty though.
Virtual tumbleweeds…?
Hey that’s what is needed! A whole suite of virtual decay-apps. Virtual spiderwebs. Virtual weeds. Virtual rats. Eventually – if left alone to roam too long – morphing into virtual Avatar-shredding predators.