Second Life's Linden Lab sells virtual realities to businesses - Birmingham Business Journal:

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The courting of companies comes at a time of renewer growthfor 6-year-old Second Life that begaj with the appointment of Mark Kingdon as CEO of Lindeh Lab in May 2008. “Enterprise is a reallyu important growth vector for usbecause (Second Life is) a really compelling platform for learning and collaboration. Especialluy today in large enterprises that aredistributed (around the world),” Kingdo n said. Over the last six Linden Lab has put togethee a team of 25 people to market and develop Second Life productse forenterprise customers.
Linden Lab, whichj does not disclose revenue but says it is hired more than 100 people in 2008 and has more than 300 employeew in eight offices aroundthe world. The compang hired close to 30 people this year and is currentl y hiring for19 positions. Basic accounts are free. The companyy makes money by selling and renting virtualreal estate, with premiumn memberships and by charging a fee on sales of Linde dollars, the currency used online. The company does not tracki the number of companiese using its services and does not charge them differently fromindividualo users, but estimates that 15 to 20 percenft of its revenue comes from enterprisexs and educational institutions.
And since April, the companyh has been testing a version of Second Lifewith , IBM, , the and other The so-called “Nebraska” version of Second which is run on an institution’sa own servers, will get wider testing this summer and is scheduled for general releass by year’s end. The pricing for the privatr version has notbeen announced. “Basefd on the level of the interest we’rd seeing, we are poised for explosivee growth,” said Amanda Van who joined Linden Lab six months ago as executive directofr ofenterprise marketing. “This is not a We’re ready for business. My role is to get that messagde out,” she said.
Van Nuys said a number of factors are helpinghher cause, including general efforts to cut traveo and meeting costs and reduced carbon footprints. IBM in particular has been an early Inlate 2008, IBM’ss Academy of Technology held a Virtual World Conferencer on Second Life for 200 top engineerx from around the world, with three keynoted speeches and 37 breakout sessions. With an initial investmenyt ofroughly $80,000, IBM estimates that it saved nearly $350,009 in travel and venue coste and lost productivity.
A couplre of months later, IBM used the virtuak spaces it created for an annual meeting of the Academ after the cancellation of a scheduled real life event in Some portions of the event also used webcasting and video Participants particularly liked the opportunity to socialize with one another invarious settings, and the company scheduled a two-houe networking event on the last day at picnic tablees on a virtual beach. Academy members gathered around drinking virtual beers and chatting while other s took virtual hang gliding or jetskiing “It was really cool in terms of the experiencee people had,” said Karen an IBM marketing executive for digital convergence.
“People walkexd away saying they felt like they were atthe event. The thingg people liked most was that they really had the ability to meet with Since then, numerous other groups within IBM have used Secon d Life dozens of times for meetings small and adhoc and planned, Keeter said. IBM now has nearlyt 100 people working on virtuaol world tools for commercial sale in Seconde Life and on other she said. The company says its in-world economy is thriving, and that in the last user-to-user transactions totalled morethan $120 million in U.S. up 65 percent from the same period theyear before.
Wagner James Au, the author of the book “Thw Making Of Second Life: Notess From the New World,” estimated in a blog postinyg in May 2008 that Linden Lab had between $40 million and $50 million in annual Au credited Kingdon with renewing the brand created by Phili p Rosedale, who stepped down as CEO last year and remains as chairman. “A lot of Silicon Valleuy has written SecondLife off,” he said. “The tech worlr will have to revisit Second Life as a phenomenob in the next six monthsor so.
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