"Is Corporate Mania for 'Second Life' Just a Lot of Hype?"

Avatar holding a stack of purchases in a virtual store

Second Life is not only used to find and make relationships but is also a place for corporations to invest and advertise. Big name brands like Dell and Sun have jumped on the virtual world hype and "aren't just holding press conferences inside this alternative universe, but are building virtual 'campuses' . . . where they can advertise their products - or even sell them" (Is Corporate . . .). With the amount of people that log in to Second Life each day, companies can advertise to a large segmented area of the population.

Some companies such as Cisco hold "interactive seminars . . . complete with video feeds of featured speakers, while IBM uses the service for internal communication, with far-flung employees" (Is Corporate . . .). This allows for employees to chat and see speakers without physically being present which is very helpful when clients are overseas or simply cannot go. Second Life offers a completely different realm to investors and businesses that has never been offered before.

For some companies though, money is not an issue. IBM plans on investing $10 million into their virtual technologies in 2008 (Is Corporate . . .). But are companies actually making a profit? Even if companies do not end up making a great deal of money in the virtual world, PR specialists have stated that simply getting media attention about investing in Second Life is positive advertising (Is Corporate . . .). Either way, companies represented in the virtual community are getting their name out there as well as associating their organization with the latest technological advancement, so, no, Second Life is not just a lot of hype.