That's the headline coming out of some new research by Gartner Group, which highlights the way many big brands have dived into virtual worlds, but then quietly slunk out within a year and a half when they don't meet their initial expectations.
I’m wondering what they mean by ‘fail’ though - is it that the virtual worlds don’t deliver, or that the brands’ initial expectations are incorrect?
Meanwhile, Gartner suggests that the solution is for companies to set up their own virtual worlds, rather than work within Second Life and its rivals. Indeed, the research predicts that by 2012, 70% of organisations will have established their own virtual worlds.
This is how the research has come through in reports, anyway. It’s a bit unclear whether Gartner is referring to corporate use of virtual worlds - for meetings, recruitment and so on - or consumer-focused branding campaigns of the kind that have been seen in Second Life. If the former, then it does make sense for larger businesses to establish their own worlds, presumably with a technical partner to make it cheap and easy.
But is there really a viable future in every big brand having their own virtual world, presumably with its own signup and avatar creation process? What consumer wants to join a different virtual world for every brand that they might be interested in? If this is going to happen, there’s going to need to be considerably more interoperability and data portability than there is now.
Which makes me think, are any virtual worlds signing up to Google’s Open Social initiative, particularly considering its new Friend Connect feature allowing easier data portability between different social networks and Web 2.0 sites?
1 comments
nic mitham
16.05.08 at 13:34