Thank you Mr. Heining for posting this question. Honestly speaking, I really do not know. It seems that is has been highly successfull with more than 4 million users. Looking forward to see other CMO’s comments on this.

Good question.
It depends on whether the “owners” or founding company, manage to keep on innovating and re-inventing themselves.
It may be considered to be like any other product in that it will have a life cycle. Where in its product life cycle it is now I can only guess, but I would say it’s getting to maturity.
http://www.anjamerret.com

The original poster asked if it was ‘hype’ or ‘reality’. Well, I guess the simple answer is that it is very much a reality around which there is a lot of hype.

I personally think that it is something that cannot be ignored and I am currently spending a lot of time with my company (Philips Design) researching and understanding virtual environments and communities to best understand how, as marketers, we should do our stuff there.

Many people are now talking about it as the 3D Web and, it is in this context, that I can imagine that Second Life or something very much like it will form part of our everyday ‘online’ world.

Linden Lab are taking steps to ensure that it grows. Apart from open sourcing the front end earlier this year they will be make the server side available soon too. This will drive growth as individuals and companies will be able to add functionality and customize the interface.

As a marketing environment it has fantastic opportunities. A lack of success in this area so far is far more to do with a lack of understanding by those that have tried things rather than any limitations of the environment or the community itself.

Second life: For some not for others

Second Life (and other Virtual World’s, There etc) represent a valid part of the marketing mix for some brands.

For some a significant part.
For others a minor part.

For some it will be ‘dead hype’, whilst for others it will present serious opportunity.

Just like advertising, email marketing, exhibitions, viral etc each brand owner and CMO will need to decide the extent to which Virtual World’s represent part of the marketing mix, if at all.

Second life: Pyramid Scam !

It’s all a bit of a pyramid marketing scam. Where the hype exists the early adopters will be hailed as visionaries and get rich. When the hype subsides the people who joined the game late will get rinsed.

Second Life will be an important part in the marketing mix scenario for ever, that´s for sure.

It is to late to be a hype (because the first virtual world did start in 1997) but it is good enough to creates standards in customer communication. And for my view, the technical standard could be a little more advanced.

It will be an important part in the marketing mix scenario for ever, that´s for sure. And marketing and communication specialists have to learn how to dose it for every market segment.

But there are a lot more chances to use these virtuel platforms. I have none of these seen until now.

One of the things I miss (maybe it´s there and I couldn´t find it):
Use SL for cooperative development between companies or customers. Incorporate the customer into the product development and let him feel it is just a game. I think about a mix of video conferencing, web teamwork and interactive TV. That could be a step forward.

There are some other great advantages I still miss when I use the virtual world. Maybe they are in development too. If al these would be applicable, SL could be also a part of the business world later on

Second Life: The Zeitgeist is ripe

For those who have developed the both the psychological and technical skills sets to survive within the corporate world there definitely IS a Second Life.

The zeitgeist is ripe to be a small business owner or sole proprietor and build a virtual organization through our distributed work universe, and I have never been more happy professionally and personally in doing so! Have faith in yourself and your skills!

Second Life in its infancy with interesting aspects

Is this internet really worth anything - isnt it just technology hype…?

Well. Second Life is still in its infancy. There is a lot of hype - but there’s also some very interesting aspects.

While Everquest and others are very mature. I am not 100% sure SL will survive - but I am very sure something like SL will have major impact on the way we move around the net, the way we do business, and relate to each other - in the years to come.

The way people were convinced the internet was really something, was by trying. Do try yourself. If you want to - I know someone who can give you a guided tour - and I think that will answer your question better than any answers on this page (including my own)

Second life: Too difficult to master for widespread adoption.

There is definitely something very compelling about an immersive avatar environment (a 3D chatroom), but my take on SL is that in its current iteration it is too difficult to master for widespread adoption and somewhat elitist.

The niche demographic using the environment may be ripe for certain brands, but I doubt that many larger brands will see ROI. However, this may be missing the point - at this time, it is about being seen as ‘cutting edge’ and the associated cudos rather than actually generating revenues.

Second Life, a part of the development of communication!

Our society has gone through a fast technologically growth during the last decade, which has given us endless opportunities of connecting with each other. As it takes time to understand and adapt technology I believe that connecting with others through virtual worlds is just a part of the ever changing communication paradigm. We have seen it with Web2.0 and in my opinion this is just a part of it. Yes, I know that Active World (former Alpha World) has been here since 1997 just like many of the other technologically opportunities we have. However, the fact is that we need to be ready for the technology in order to adapt and now we are getting ready for virtual worlds.

If we for example look at the teenagers’ relationship to technology and their ways of communicating with each other we see a different kind of media use compared with the older generations.

Just to give you an indication:
• Habbo Hotel: 50 million members (a virtual world for teens)
• Neopets: 70 million+ (a virtual world for virtual pet owners)
• Coke Studios: 8+ million registered users (virtual world for teens)
• Virtual Magic Kingdom: 1+ million registered users
• Second Life: 290,000 members (now close to 4 million)
• World of Warcraft: 5.5 million members

(source: http://www.trendwatching.com)

This could be an indication of the importance of virtual worlds in the future. With that in mind the marketers of the future must be ready in order to gain competitive advantages using the virtual worlds. And with any other new media we need to understand it and treat it in new ways in order to meet the requirements and to be able to take advantages of it.

So if Second Life is the infancy state of what will be in the future, now is the time to explore.

So to answer the question Second Life, in my opinion, is not a dead hype. It is however, an environment and an opportunity to explore the future business potential of the 3D virtual worlds which might be a competitive force in the future.

For more inspiration you are welcome to visit my blog

http://oursecondlife.wordpress.com/)

which I and my fellow student have made for our Master’s Thesis, in which we explores how real-life companies can use 3D virtual worlds as a part of their brand building process.

Second Life: The next big thing !
Gee, I remember when people said the internet was a bunch of hype.

Second Life is the first example of the next big thing - but it’s probably like Netscape the first example of a new technology that will be taken over by new entrants.

Second Life: What’s in it for me?
What’s in it for me? I think one needs not to go any further than to ask this very basic question.

Concepts like Neopets, Habbo Hotel, World of Warcraft, etc. offer their users unique approaches to specific subjects and engage the users in compelling stories worth exploring and sharing. How? By concentrating on a single concept and excelling to be the best.

In SL you basically can’t get unique information or experiences which you couldn’t get easier or better otherwise. Technically it is also quite appalling, compared to a game like World of Warcraft. In its attempt to mimick everything, it ends up mimicking nothing worth the effort and as long as it fails to do so, the great public will never come running.

If SL was the real deal they should have considerably more regular users than a social networking concept like Neopets, which focuses on a single subject. I’m voting “hype” on this one!

Second Life: Test the temperature rather than large scale entrance
Some thoughts before flying into second life if you are a brand owner:

Develop a solid understanding of Second Life before making any decisions:
Understand how people use it, what is considered acceptable, etc.
Focus on ways to participate, not ways to manipulate: how can your brand add value, provide unique resident-friendly experiences, new features or functionality that make SL better for its users

Determine your brand’s attitude to risk and association with potentially/highly likely inappropriate content

Test the temperature rather that large scale entrance

Have reasonable expectations
Despite a growing resident base, usage is low, visitation to brand areas is limited if not minimal , and results are difficult if not impossible to track at this point.

And 2 points to remember:
1. it’s a fantasy world where you can fly & breathe underwater. Don’t go there with real world rules, play by the fantasy world rules.

2. SLers are potentially deviants, witness the terrorist bombing of the relatively safe American Apparel SL store in February.

Second Life: Good marketplace for the 18-24 years old

Second Life appears to be a good marketplace for the 18-24 year old demographics, especially for product placement, etc. However, I do not think that it has staying power as it requires too much time for those folks that have a life in the real world.

Let me clarify with regard to a few of the, let’s say, misinformed comments on this discussion.

To say that it (SL) requires too much time away from the real world is, quite frankly, nonsense. For a dramatically increasing number of people, their world - their existence - is increasingly on-line. And, let’s be clear, they make NO distinction between real, on-line or virtual. It is, for them, simply where they want to be. People go to myspace, text each other and hang out in SL and a lot of them are not thinking, ‘I need to be doing something else’.

As with other things, the outcome of a technology or a concept is determined in many cases by adoption by large organizations. In the case of Second Life, or something based upon it, IBM have 120 people working on it and have said that it represents the beginning of the 3D web.They are using the PlayStation engine with their mainframe technology to create massive worlds that can support thousands of users with all the associated scalability and security that turn an idea into applications. This is hugely significant.

And, as for demographics, the residents of Second Life fall into the 30 plus grouping and are known to be above average income and education. These are real professionals - approaching middle age, affluent and. most importantly, influential. Don’t think for a minute that SL is a place for kids!

Anyway, my two pennies worth on a Friday afternoon.