Jon Russell

Second Life For Business In Asia

Second Life never went anywhere, it is still here.

That was the overwhelming gist of my recent conversation with Claus Nehmzow, a Hong Kong based social media strategist specialising in 3D virtual environments.

Claus previously turned a skeptical Thomas Crampton into a believer in the potential of VR (virtual reality) environments for business (here) and I was equally impressed.

Second Life seemed to hit the peak of its hype during the mid-noughties (2000s) before the inevitable media knock down arrived with a range of new services dubbed "Second Life killers".

Yet it has stood the test of time, evolving into a key tool for collaborative working.

I was surprised to hear just how many reputable Asian businesses use the service, there is sure to be more to come from both Second Life and other 3D VRs in the future.

Just to illustrate this point PlayStation Home (the game consoles VR world) recently hit 10 million members, according to The Guardian.

Perhaps most importantly, Asia is likely to be a key, if not THE key, market.

An intro of my Director blog post is below, click here to see it in full.

3D is THE hot topic of the moment.

From the record breaking Avatar, to 3D TVs from Panasonic, 3D specs for mobile and 3D sports shows it is everywhere.

3D gaming and virtual reality has even reentered the mainstream again.

Just a few weeks ago a Guardian article claimed that PlayStation Home, the video game console’s 3D virtual world, had reached 10 million users.

What ever happen to Second Life then, the 3D trailblazer which had critics claiming we might never need to leave our computers again.

Forgotten by the press that built it up and tried to knock it down Second Life is thriving, according to the Guardian.

“Second Life has an economy so large that their Linden dollar is tradeable currency in the real world to the tune of USD 29m per quarter.”

The key area that has fuelled Second Life’s unprecedented success is the business world.

Director caught up with Claus Nehmzow, the Hong Kong based managing director ofAlcus International, a new media strategy consultancy with a specialism in 3D virtual world environments.

via director-thailand.com

Mobile Social Networking's Big Potential In Thailand

Here's a piece from the Director Thailand blog on the potential of mobile social networking in Thailand during 2010.

2010 is here and rather than review the year we’d prefer to launch straight into mobile social networking, a technology which could break through and have a major influence on Thailand and its businesses this year.

Just to be clear, we are not advocating that mobile social networking will grip every mobile phone owner across Thailand but, in a world where western markets set digital trends, social networking has the potential emerge as a major force in a similar way to Twitter’s rise over the last 3-6 months.

Key to the development is users’ points of access - in this case smartphones such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, high-end Nokia or others. The demand  for such devices is rapidly growing in Thailand as the media has recently commented.

Here is an excerpt from a recent article in The Nation:

“Thailand's smart-phone market is expected to grow to sales of 400,000 units in 2009, or about 35 per cent more than the 320,000 sold last year, according to market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) Thailand.

The local smart-phone market still has a lot of room for growth. About 20,000 units are currently being sold per month, while total mobile-phone sales are around 700,000 to 800,000 per month. But the market for traditional mobile phones is showing flat growth, and is likely to fall further.”

To read the rest click here.

Social Media Spotlight: Adidas, The Star Wars Collection [Director Thailand]