Back in early 2007 Second Life was the big thing for corporate marketing, and seemingly every company and marketing firm was rushing into SL in order to establish a presence. As we know, that mostly fizzled out as hype, but Second Life continued to develop and build. Fast forward to late 2009 and suddenly some positive media coverage and analyst reports are beginning to appear.

Case in point today, GigaOM Pro, while it may not considered to be quite Gartner level quality by some, is research analysis, and does provide insight into this market space. They have the following to say:

Enterprise 3-D virtual world applications have proliferated during the past several years. What began as fun and games is becoming a serious business with a lot of upside.

Further, GigaOm's network site, WebWorkerDaily says the following:

According to the new GigaOM Pro report “Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise Market” by Kris Tuttle and Steve Waite of Research 2.0, business use of virtual worlds is a growing market — one that we shouldn’t ignore...

Develop a plan. Companies should develop a plan for use of enterprise, private 3-D virtual world environments for both internal and external use.

Technology continues to evolve. The “in world” experiences of these new virtual environments will be leaps and bounds ahead of that currently offered by Second Life.

* Don’t underestimate the market. The market for enterprise 3-D worlds may seem small today, but according to the report, it’s doubling year over year, with estimated annual revenues of $8-10 billion in 2015.

That last bullet point is vitally important. Those of us who are working in the 3d worlds market space need to be prepared for rapid growth because if the market doubles in size year over year, the next decade is poised to be a rocket ship ride in growth. Another important item to note is that Second Life is being used in the article as a jumping off point, rather than the end all be all of 3d worlds. But if we step away from the specific platform, and look at what the article notes as important areas in which to focus, we get the following list:

1. Maneuvering an avatar in a 3d space

2. Interacting with others in a 3d space

3. Communicating with others using voice and text chat

4. Presenting in a 3d space

5. Teaching and learning in a 3d space

6. Collaborating with others in real time

7. Branding via an avatar

8. Promoting and new methods of marketing

9. Building and design skills for 3d

That isn't a bad list, however I would revise the list and go for something like this:

1. Social networking using 3d

2. Integration of 3d space with enterprise data and the enterprise web

3. B2B using 3d spaces (collaboration, commerce)

4. Use of micro-commerce capabilities provided by 3d spaces

5. IP issues in 3d spaces (copyright, trademark, patent)

6. Technical skills required for 3d design and deployment

7. Use of 3d spaces for "green" initiatives

The point is that 3d immersion is far more than just learning how to communicate, rather it holds the possibility of radically altering the way in which enterprise processes operate, and if businesses simply view 3d spaces as just another marketing tool they are completely missing the point. In any event, I will be continuing my work in this area and look forward to seeing this market space develop and mature.

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a wild ride.

The GigaOm article can be found by clicking here


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