'Virtual Tokyo to be unveiled in cyberspace's Second Life'

For the second consecutive day the most interesting article in the day's papers appears in the Financial Times — and nowhere else, at least among U.S. newspapers of record.

What's going on here?

Anyway, the headline up top appeared over Mariko Sanchanta's Financial Times piece about tomorrow's opening of Virtual Tokyo in Second Life.

Long story short: Dentsu, Japan's leading ad agency, spent $870,000 to acquire the 85 hectares which comprise Virtual Tokyo and aims to attract three million users within its first year, a formidable goal considering that global users of Second Life number around eight million, about 50,000 of whom are there at any given time.

Note that Virtual Tokyo will operate entirely in Japanese — gaijin go home.

Here's the newspaper story.

Virtual Tokyo to be unveiled in cyberspace's Second Life

A Japanese virtual megalopolis will open its doors on Friday in Second Life, the online virtual world created and owned by Linden Lab, the US company.

Virtual Tokyo is funded entirely by Dentsu, Japan's leading advertising agency, and aims to attract 3m users within its first year, an aggressive target given that global users of Second Life total about 8m.

Dentsu is hoping to glean valuable marketing information from the online universe and tap into its vast client base, which includes many of Japan's blue-chip companies, to create a virtual presence in the Japanese city.

Ken Aihara, who leads the Virtual Tokyo team at Dentsu, said: "This will be an invaluable platform for marketing and advertising for Dentsu." Virtual Tokyo will operate entirely in Japanese.

Dentsu, which spent about Y10m ($870,000) to acquire the 85 hectares in Virtual Tokyo, is aiming to recoup its investment by lining up 30 or so blue-chip companies to build a virtual presence within the first year.

Mr Aihara said: "We're aiming to create a virtual Japanese Wall Street, where major Japanese financial institutions will have a presence.

"For example, users would be able to negotiate a virtual home mortgage with a bank to then buy a virtual flat."

Analysts said the marketing and advertising potential on the Japanese version of Second Life could be enormous. The monetary value of Second Life is expected to grow from Y135bn in 2007 to Y1,250bn in 2008, according to Mizuho Corporate Bank.

Masaru Yamaguchi, manager in the industry research team at Mizuho Corporate Bank, aid: "For Dentsu, the Second Life venture makes sense. It doesn't require a huge investment on their part and the potential for reaping benefits from online marketing and advertising are huge. It is still a burgeoning market in Japan."

Social networking sites and blogs have boomed in the country, but most Japanese still prefer to play games on consoles rather than on a PC.

Large-scale multiplayer online role-playing games have enjoyed enormous success in South Korea and China but have yet to catch on in the Japanese market — the third biggest gaming market after the US and Europe.

Second Life will also face competition when Sony launches Home, a virtual world that will run on its PlayStation, in the autumn.

Mr Yamaguchi said: "Japanese gamers are accustomed to playing games on consoles due to the dominance of companies such as Nintendo, which came out with the Famicon console in the 1980s. It is a cultural difference.

"The solution for Japan might be to introduce a console-type controller that can attach to a PC."

More than $1m a day is spent in the Second Life universe through conversions of the in-world Linden dollar currency, enabling thousands of people to earn a living by selling goods and services through the site.

The virtual world's great appeal has been the tools and land it provides for users to create their own avatars, buildings and communities.

Increased appetite for networking feeds virtual world

Second Life was launched in 2003 by Linden Lab and aimed to take advantage of the increasing appetite for social networking websites.

It is a three-dimensional world and, to enter it, you must adopt an online avatar, or visual persona, which can be moulded to an almost ludicrous degree.

Physical characteristics such as tint of skin, eye colour and length of hair can be tweaked to give you that winning look as you walk or fly around, interacting with others.

The Second Life economy has its own currency, Linden dollars, which can be bought and sold on LindeX, the currency exchange, for real-world currency.

More than $1m in real-world dollars are spent on Second Life assets every day.

You can buy virtual clothes, land, build houses and businesses and get a job at one of the many organisations that have a presence. Occupations include tattooist, casino operator and private detective.

Second Life claims to have 8.5m "residents" and real-world businesses such as ABN Amro, IBM and Toyota have set up shop.

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Maybe I'll mosey on over to Virtual Tokyo and have a look — can't be any harder than figuring out Second Life in English, at least for this TechnoDolt™.