On a bien beau parler de virtuel avec Second Life, certaines entreprises réalisent déjà comment on peut aisément faire des dollars réels avec le virtuel. Ainsi, la société FirstMetaBank de Singapour et son CEO, Douglas Abrams, offriront un service bancaire incluant une carte de crédit et des prêts aux entreprises dans Second Life.
We’re treading on new ground and one of the early Singapore-based business entrants to open in Second Life, » Abrams said in an interview with ZDNet Asia, explaining that the company’s initial idea was to provide financial services for games that thrive on virtual communities. Abrams is also the founder of Expara, which provides leadership consulting and training services, and the founding partner of Parallax Capital Management, a funds management company based in Singapore.
« I saw an article which talked about people who were trading game currencies like Simleons [used in The Sims Online], on eBay in exchange for real-world currencies… So, virtual currencies can actually be consumed like real money, » he said, adding that he then spotted the business opportunity which spawned First Meta. « Many would agree that banking [in the physical world] is one of the most profitable businesses you can be in. »The startup decided to focus solely on Second Life because of the latter’s phenomenal growth and increasing popularity, where the virtual world now boasts a population of over 6.6 million residents who exchange millions of virtual dollars each month.
Dans les derniers mois, j’ai rencontré plusieurs gestionnaires des secteurs bancaires et financiers et lorsque je leur parlais de Second Life, ils m’écoutaient poliment avec un scepticisme mesuré. Il semble qu’ils seront désormais à la remorque de plus innovateurs qu’eux…
Via Metaversed et ZDnetAsia
