Breaking news: Investing in the online property boom

Posted on October 23, 2006
Filed Under Economic/Business news, Investments, Online business, Real estates, web 2.0 news |

Cnnmoney describes what is an online property boom:
Imagine the real estate mogul in a world where everything is for sale. No, it’s not Donald Trump in Vegas, but a Chinese-born teacher who is the land baroness of the virtual world Second Life. The profits are real, even though the landscape and the character named Anshe Chung are simulated. The woman who created Chung, and whose brick-and-mortar home is in Germany, owns about $250,000 in virtual land that she buys, sells and leases with fellow virtual citizens, or avatars.

In Second Life, users can fly, teleport and create anything their imaginations and skills allow. Moreover, they can freely buy and sell their goods for an in-world currency, called Linden dollars, that can be exchanged for real life greenbacks. However, these transactions have largely been limited to English- and German-language speakers. Some users have found creative ways around the limits. For example, a Second Life denizen created a “translation hud” that an avatar can wear to communicate in nearly any language. Simply don the device, set the language you’ll be typing in and the one that you want to appear on screen. But not everyone knows about it. “The language issue has presented some cultures from embracing Second Life completely. Even if they speak English as a second language, they’ll stay away,” says David Fleck, vice president of marketing at Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based company that created Second Life.