Second Life - Future of eCommerce or Porn…and money laundering?

May 10th, 2007 Drazen Drazic Posted in Uncategorized |

I’ll leave the latter question for now and look at the first one. Second Life on the face of it, and has been reported widely, opens up a world of e-opportunities for business. Just google it if you haven’t heard about it. It’s getting mainstream press everywhere. You’ll wonder why you haven’t heard about it!

The “Otherland” series of books by Tad Williams gives you the feel for how life may become….and more than likely will. Second Life seems like an early incarnation of what Williams plays out in his stories. This is something our kids or their kids will see as a normal part of their lives. Do I sound like a raving lunatic? Maybe….but marketplaces like this are coming. It is inevitable.

Many large corporates are already investing into the L$ (in Second Life) for marketing purposes, but seriously, is porn and other illegal stuff going to dominate (akin to the Internet)? At present, it looks like it!

Don’t get me wrong….I’m excited by things like this….done right (but how do you manage it?)….. How do you stop it turning into a “dirty” and unregulated society..a place where you can virtually do what you want? A place outside the law? It’s heading that way…..smh story.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no prude, but I see that games like this (more than a game actually), make it harder for parents to control their kids access to inappropriate material. How can they?

I went into Second Life for the first time last weekend. I had read about it and it sounded interesting. As a businessman, I thought I should stay abreast of new marketing channels for my business. Now some of you that know me may say that I looked for it….but NO…….it wasn’t hard and within a few hours (it takes that long to do your orientation) I was walking into houses and Islands dedicated to porn and virtual sex. NO…I did not look for it. It was there!

I wouldn’t have my kids on this and at present, I surely wouldn’t promote my business in it….but then again…….companies said the same about the Internet.