Virtual credit cards arrive in Second Life

Posted on September 5, 2007 at 9:53 am UK

Yesterday I signed up for a credit card that I could use in Second Life. Today the approval came, so watch out virtual shops!

The credit card comes from First Meta, a financial services firm based in Singapore, that has just launched the MetaCard.

Three types of card, in fact, as the image above indicates. I signed up for the Basic (blue) card which gives me an initial credit limit of 5,000 Linden dollars (L$), the virtual currency used in Second Life (perspective: that’s roughly the equivalent of $18.50 in real money).

Applying for this card involves not much more than filling out an application form with your SL avatar name, your real name and an email address. You can apply on First Meta’s website or at First Meta’s island in Second Life.

You can also apply for a Gold MetaCard. The primary difference between Gold and Basic is that the Gold card is linked to your real-world credit card and provides a higher credit limit and other benefits (see the comparisons). The image above shows a third card, a Corporate MetaCard, although I can’t see any info about this one on the First Meta website.

I didn’t apply for the Gold card mainly because I don’t yet know enough about First Meta to trust them with my financial data.

Once you’ve filled out the application form, it goes off to First Meta and after a while, you’ll get an approval notice by email and by in-world notecard. Then, you’re ready to shop.

(I heard about the MetaCard via Second Life Insider yesterday; TechCrunch has a write-up today about the cards.)

Where can you use your MetaCard? At the moment, places are few and far between other than at the Meta Mall at the First Meta island. But First Meta has ambitious plans for Second Life and other virtual communities, so expect to see more places accepting the card.

You can also use First Meta’s ATMs to draw out cash (ie, credit your L$ cash balance) as well as check your balance and make payments on your account.

This is a significant development for Second Life where we now have credit cards including one that’s linked to financial information in the real world.

I’ll be experimenting with mine to see how a virtual credit card works over time – an opportunity for learning how consumer purchasing via credit will work in virtual worlds.

Full details about the MetaCard, including an FAQ, on First Meta’s website.

Related post:

Real-world opportunities in Second Life

Looking for new office space in Second Life

Posted on August 27, 2007 at 10:26 pm UK

Since earlier this year, my home in Second Life has been this rented office at Limitless Worlds.

jangles-office

That’s about to change imminently as I received notification late last week that Limitless Worlds has been sold and the Limitless group is being disbanded. Everyone has to vacate by August 31!

It’s a shame as Limitless Worlds has been a terrific landlord. One of the things that attracted me to Limitless in the first place was it’s name. Great people and a great environment to have a business-focused presence.

So I’m looking to rent new digs. Nothing especially fancy. All I really need is space with sufficient prim allowance (150-200 would do) and streaming audio/video capability. Plus the ability to build, eg, add furniture, etc. If there were presentation rooms available, as Limitless offered, great.

One very cool feature Limitless also offered was a conference table (you can just see the top of it in the pic above) that rezzes seats as required and takes you up into the sky and rezzes your very own private conference room. A very nice feature.

As for where the office should be, I have a pretty open mind (although I don’t want to be in a red light district).

I’ve been looking at a few locations, one or two of which I could happily go with.

But as with most things, I’d rather get a recommendation than flip through the Yellow Pages, so to speak.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

Japanese Wall Street to open in Second Life

Posted on August 23, 2007 at 12:32 pm UK

So businesses don’t think Second Life is worth investing their time and money in?

Tell that to Dentsu and the financial community in Japan.

The Japanese advertising firm is launching ‘Virtual Tokyo,’ a virtual megalopolis that will open its doors tomorrow August 24 in Second Life.

A report in the Financial Times says Dentsu is hoping to glean valuable marketing information from their online venture and tap into its vast client base, which includes many of Japanâ€™s blue-chip companies, to create a virtual presence in the Japanese city:

[...] Dentsu, which spent about Â¥10m ($870,000) to acquire the 85 hectares in Virtual Tokyo, is aiming to recoup its investment by lining up 30 or so blue-chip companies to build a virtual presence within the first year.
[Ken] Aihara [who leads the Virtual Tokyo team at Dentsu] said: â€œWeâ€™re aiming to create a virtual Japanese Wall Street, where major Japanese financial institutions will have a presence.
â€œFor example, users would be able to negotiate a virtual home mortgage with a bank to then buy a virtual flat.â€

Analysts said the marketing and advertising potential on the Japanese version of Second Life could be enormous. The monetary value of Second Life is expected to grow from Â¥135bn in 2007 to Â¥1,250bn in 2008, according to Mizuho Corporate Bank.

Ambitious plans for a virtual world that naysayers in the US and Europe believe has little or no future from a business point of view.

Let’s see what Dentsu can do.

The Second Life hype cycle

Posted on August 13, 2007 at 8:27 pm UK

It seems that you can’t pick up a magazine or newspaper these days without seeing lengthy articles that focus on the negative side of Second Life.

The latest comes from Time magazine in a feature last week.

Reality is catching up with Second Life, says the magazine in its article entitled Second Life’s Real-World Problems.

Like others before it, this article talks about companies who have departed the virtual world for one reason or another, usually referencing disappointment with objectives not realized, ROI not met, etc.

What caught my attention in particular in Time’s article is a perceptive quote from IT industry analysts Gartner Group:

[...] Says Gartner research chief Steve Prentice: “Second Life is moving into a phase of disillusionment.”

I think he’s absolutely right. I’m actually feeling that a bit myself – like some magic is disappearing from my own experiences in Second Life.

But none of this is the doom and gloom scenario you might think, and which quite a few mainstream media folk (and some others) do think.

Look at it in the context of Gartner’s own hype cycle, their annual analysis/projection of the realities of where certain technologies are in relation to their adoption.

If we consider Second Life in that context, I think we’d see it on the slippery downward slope towards that phase (the trough) that Prentice speaks of.

About where the orange arrow is pointing, in fact:

Second Life hype cycle

What’s important for Second Life and everyone using it is how quickly it emerges from that trough of disillusionment and out into the slope of enlightenment.

What will help the acceleration are the kinds of activities being conducted by many of the companies Time mentions, before they threw in their towels.

If everyone did that, then Second Life will skid to a halt in that trough.

Linden Lab is the other important element in this picture. As the developer of the Second Life environment, their role is absolutely crucial for the future well-being of that environment and all in it.

But overall, I think it’s down to the companies and individuals who are active in Second Life. They hold the key to what happens to it.

Leaders like IBM, Dell and General Motors (to name but a few) are the ones who persist, listen, learn and look for a long-term return.

Still, it’s understandable that the media in particular are talking about perceived negatives. And when you read a story like this one in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, on the toll one man’s virtual marriage is taking on his real one, you do begin to wonder a bit.

But let’s hang in there. I think it’s worth it in the long term.

Now go and read Newsweek’s take on Second Life.

(Thanks to Tom Murphy for the clean hype cycle graph from which I made the simple one you see here.)