A Second Leader for Second Life

Second Life? Wasn’t that last year’s fad?

That’s what flashed through my head when I heard that Mark Kingdon, the chief executive of Omnicom’s Organic, one of the biggest interactive ad agencies, had quit to become the new chief executive of Linden Labs, the purveyors of Second Life.
Second Life, in case you haven’t noticed, is sort of like a huge video-game version of a costume party, except that it has an economy. You dress up in whatever clothes or skin you want, hang with creatures of your choosing, buy virtual real estate and trade in electronic creations.
Sure, marketers are no longer enthralled with setting up outposts in Second Life, Mr. Kingdon told me when he stopped by last week. But that didn’t dissuade him from dashing off an email to Linden’s founder and former chief, Philip Rosedale, as soon as he heard that Mr. Rosedale was stepping down. (Mr. Rosedale remains chairman of the board.)
“Despite the fact that Madison Avenue went and left, Second Life is thriving,” he said.
Mr. Kingdon said one of the appeals of the company is that, unlike nearly every other consumer-oriented Internet company these days, it is not dependent on advertising.
“Second Life is the only social media property where the business model is central to the user experience,” he said.
Second Life charges a variety of fees to its users. While anyone can participate for free, advanced features require a paid membership. Users also pay to buy “land” in the virtual world that they can occupy and develop. Linden also gets a cut as users pay cash for Linden Dollars — the game’s currency —and another cut if gamers convert the virtual money back to old-fashioned greenbacks.
As a result, the company is profitable, even though it has a relatively small user base. About 750,000 people have logged onto the service in the last month. (There are 13 million registered users.)
Still, Mr. Kingdon was upfront that there would be a lot more users if Second Life wasn’t so difficult to use, especially for those just starting out.
“We need to make the first-hour experience better for users,” he said. “Once people get some experience in Second Life, it very compelling and almost addictive because it is such a bright and vibrant world you feel you have to explore.”
At the same time, Mr. Kingdon said he saw a much bigger business for Second Life’s glorified chat room and swap meet.
The current virtual world is just one use of the company’s technology. He talked about selling services, as well, for other applications that require a three-dimensional space, such as classes or seminars.
Mr. Kingdon said that Second Life has the opportunity to achieve that most elusive and potent technology achievements: the platform. In other words, he thinks the company can be to three-dimensional interaction what Google is to search and eBay is to auctions.
“The Internet is a winner-take-all game in many categories,” he said. “When you look at the virtual world space, the owner of that space has not been determined yet.”
I’m not sure I see it. But if Mr. Kingdon is a believer, I can understand why he would take the job. After all, they called eBay a fad, too.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/a-second-leader-for-second-life/?scp=3-b&sq=second+life&st=nyt

When I read second life first time, I think that Second life is way to much expensive and addictive and I have nothing to do with that. But sometimes I am going to use this world in diverse case and get my colleagues by this world.