Second Life Scores $11 Million

News.com reports that Second Life, the virtual world run by Linden Labs, has netted $11 Million in venture capital funding from the Globespan Capital Partners group. From the article: "The company makes its money by charging players use fees for land they buy and build on. For now, the company isn't profitable, and it's not clear when it will be, said Catherine Smith, Linden Lab's director of marketing. However, she told CNET News.com that Linden Lab plans to use its new funding for aggressive international expansion, as well as for hiring intended to boost its infrastructure. "

Comments

From the Money-Down-The-Rathole dept.

[KimiDalamori]

Has second life ever made any profit, ever? Granted that the people who invested think that there is money to be made in 2nd life, but I see 12-year olds running virtual brothels ( http://www.alphavilleherald.com/archives/000049.ht ml ) as the game's only economic vehicle for making any sort of US currency. I suggest that if they want to blow money, I have a bridge in a MUD that I can sell them.

Re:It just seems like such a stupid idea to me

[XenoRyet]

Not that I'm nessisarily disagreeing with you, but I sometimes work the equation the other way as well. In a cost per hour versus other common entertainment sort of way.

Here's how that one works out. Movie + popcorn is roughly $15 for 2 hours of entertainment, which is $7.50 per hour. I'm figuring on 10 hours a week for an MMO. That's an hour a day on weekdays and 2 and a half hours on weekends, which is probably overly conservative. So that's 40 hours a month, which works out to roughly $0.37 per hour. Obviously that equation gets better if you play more, and vice versa.

You may not go out to movies eather, I don't much do it myself, but I do find that looking at the MMO fees in that way can provide perspective.