With the global economy in a slump, leaders from the world’s top industrial powers are meeting in Pittsburgh to discuss ways to ramp up growth.
In the meantime, investors keep scanning the planet for opportunities in a down market. There’s always China, whose economy the Asian Development Bank forecasts will grow by 8.2% next year. And one seemingly can’t go wrong with India, as the World Bank’s research concludes it might end up with the fastest growing economy in 2010. Or one could get really creative and pursue deals in Africa’s emerging players, such as Malawi, Angola or Ethiopia, all of which the Economist has placed into its top ten list for GDP growth this year.
But those growth rates are small potatoes compared to one emerging economic powerhouse: Second Life. Believe it or not, the virtual economy of Second Life, a popular online computer game that lets users create a new reality for themselves, doubled in size last year. Users spent more than a billion dollars on virtual goods over the last year, compared to $360 million for the year before. Second Life’s economy is now larger than the economies of nations such as East Timor, Samoa and Dijibouti.
Players attend everything from concerts to business meetings and some entrepreneurs make money selling virtual goods and services to others. Apparently, the desire to wear designer shoes applies in virtual reality as well as the real world.
In case you were wondering, Second Life even publishes daily statistical updates on its virtual economy, tracking land sales and consumer spending, among other data points. Linden Labs, the game’s creator, makes money by selling and renting virtual real estate and by charging fees to convert dollars into Linden dollars, the game’s currency.
Best Buy, H&R Block, Coca-Cola, Reuters and Dell are all participants in the Second Life economy. If your company has ever waded into this new territory, please share whether it’s worthwhile in the comments section below.
