Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: QOTD: second life

QOTD: second life

January 15, 2007 • Categories: Marketing , Social networking

Given the general interest in Second Life I was interested in this one of Michael Cairns' predictions for 2007.

EBay will buy Linden Labs (Second Life). Within six months they will integrate Ebay selling tools into SecondLife enabling virtual store fronts, sales assistance and virtual trading. Will launch program with major retailers and create first Second Life mega-mall in cooperation with Westfield. Ebay also launches SecondLife media placement agency to handle all media inventory on SecondLife. [PersonaNonData: Predictions for 2007]

Follow the link for his full list.

Bookmark:

2 comments so far

Posted by Jerome McDonough on January 16, 2007

Jerry's Prediction for 2008:

EBay sells Linden Labs after suddenly realizing it already has a perfectly viable user interface for online sales and nobody actually wants or needs a 3D, avatar-based system for engaging in most forms of eCommerce.

Posted by Leo Klein on January 17, 2007

The same dynamic may be in effect as in Clay Shirky's response to a proposed virtual bookstore by Amazon:

Never mind that the cursor is a terrific way to navigate information; never mind that Amazon works precisely because it dispenses with rather than embraces the cyberspace metaphor; never mind that all the “Now you can shop in 3D efforts” like the San Francisco Yellow Pages tanked because 3D is a crappy way to search.