AOL Leaves Second Life; Looking for New Virtual World Opportunities

AOL's entrance into Second LIfe, AOL Pointe, has closed its doors after ten months of working in the virtual world. According to the official blog, the project's goals were to learn more about how to interact with customers in the virtual world, and while AOL is leaving Second Life, the company has its sights elsewhere: "We've gained a lot of insight from our participation in Second Life and we're now refocusing our efforts in virtual worlds. While we have closed AOL Pointe, you will soon be seeing more of AOL products and content across the metaverse." Several other companies have closed their Second Life presences, but Wells Fargo, an early adopter, is one of the few to move into a new space. It switched over to Active Worlds for, among other things, the lower technology requirements. Likewise, in a move to adapt to the changing virtual worlds marketplace, Coke recently moved from its privately  owned Coke Studios to a branded space in There.com[via AOL via SLAmbling]

Comments

[RightAsRain Rimbaud]

Well, of course we are all sorry to see a major brand such as AOL leave Second Life. However their site was pretty bland and in general unsupported by the owners, so really no big surprise.

I would think this is more a statement about AOL giving up hope on it's own future than that of SL.

[len]

Or it shows that for the business AOL is in, so far, virtual worlds or Second Life in particular adds no value. Sure, one can't prove a negative but the site statistics speak for the current state of the instance.

We've had fifteen-plus years of experience with 3D worlds and the kinds of traffic they support. As noted elsewhere rapid change seems to be the one required feature which is why I compare them to nightclubs and casinos. In both, the main products are insufficient to maintain the level of traffic required to keep the buildings open. The acts keep the traffic up. What virtual worlds don't have is a rotation schedule for RFPs (really famous people).

Games are a different model. They are more like an amusement park where the roller coaster is a tougher ride on different days. That is a thrills economy.

In neither of those is there a good model for selling network services. All it buys them is brand awareness. Now the question is demographic: of the potential customer types in SL, how many are looking for AOL-like network services.

For all the rant and hype, I've read no good analyses of the VW as a market domain vs product types that benefit by presence in that domain organically (by form, fit, and function).