virtual worlds in asia
TRANSCRIPT
Virtual Worlds in AsiaTrends and Expectations
Shaping and Governing the 3-D Internet
Benjamin Joffe, CEO | Plus Eight Star | Beijing, 2009.03
EU-China Information Society Project
Foreword
ベンジャミン
本杰明
벤자민
Benjamin Joffe
4 years
1 year
4 years
www.plus8star.com
China | Japan | South Korea
Cross-Market ConsultingTelecom & Internet Innovation
26 events | 98 speakers | 3,296 members | 1,440 companies
1. What is a virtual world
2. What are their origins
3. What’s the market situation
4. What are the trends
5. What are the legal challenges
6. More complexities
7. The digital third place
I am going to talk about
for 60 minutes
Chapter 1.What is a
Virtual World?
Before getting started…
Questions
Who uses Internet (almost) every day?
Question 2Yesterday
Virtual World?
Problem 1What does “virtual” mean?
3D Analog WorldWithout Server Lag?
Online / Offline
Offline OnlineIn-
between
Digital Immigrants&
Digital Natives
Offline Audience: 300
Online Audience: >30,000(and counting)
Factor 100!
Online + Offline = Life
Problem 2What means “world”?
Avatars?
Video
[Superbowl Ad]
Key elements
(1) Reach(2) Reputation
Definition
Persistent environmentSynchronous communication
Personified users
Chapter 2.Origins of
Virtual Worlds
1981 1984 1992
The Matrix (1999) Ghost in the Shell (1989)
LambdaMOO (1990)
Habitat (Lucasfilm, 1986)
Kingdom of the Wind (Nexon, 1996)
EverQuest (Sony, 1999)
Virtual World Types
PlatformCommunity
GamingBusiness
Chapter 3.Market Situation
“It’s complicated”
>150 virtual worlds
In 2008, over US$580 millionwere invested in 41 virtual goods-
related businesses.
Source: Virtual Worlds Management
Is it a business?
Revenue Scale
Online games = x 1,000 millionSocial networks = x 100 million
Virtual worlds = x 10 million
However: Convergence
Online games have revenuesSocial networks have loyaltyVirtual worlds have appeal
2D Worlds
Europe & North America
Daily Users: 495,210Monthly unique users: 6.6 million across Facebook & MySpace
Service Registered users Revenue 2008 (E) Valuation (E)
Habbo 100 mln 50 mln USD 1.25 bln USD
Gaia Online 7 mln UV/month 10 mln USD n.a.
Stardoll 20 mln 30 mln USD 450 mln USD
Club Penguin 12 mln 50-150 mln USD 350-700 mln USD
South Korea
Japan
Service Registered users Revenue 2008 (E) Valuation (E)
Cyworld 22 mln 200 mln USD n.a.
Mobile Game Town 12.6 mln 250 mln USD 1.4 billion USD
Gree 8 mln 60 mln USD 1.2 billion USD
Nicotto Town 100,000 n.a. n.a.
China
3D Worlds
Europe & North America
(60% Made in China)
Japan
Internet Adventure(by SEGA)
Meet-me
Video
[Mii TV ad - 2007]
PS3 “Home”
25 million Xbox 360 consoles getting
software upgrade?
South Korea
Video
[Nurien Demo]
China
Chapter 4.Trends
Trend 1Away from Second Life
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Mainly Second Life adaptations
Gaming virtual worlds
Variety of concepts and
revenue models
2D worlds
2D dating
Trend 2Browser
3D2D
Bro
wse
rC
lien
tH
ybri
d
Trend 3Virtual goods
Business models
• Virtual real estate
• Virtual currency
• Virtual goods
• E-commerce
• Advertising
• Platform licensing
• Content creation
Chapter 5.Legal Aspects
Trademarks
Patents
Forterra (There.com) vs. IMVU
Prior Art
Worlds.com vs. NC Soft
“System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space”
(7,181,690)
Will patents hurt the market?(“1-click” patent case)
Copyrights
Who owns what?
Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS)
• “We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use at any time without further notice.”
• Chronology of the TOS-gate– 2009.02.15 | Change in TOS – Facebook can do
whatever it wants with the content– 2009.02.15 | Users uproar– 2009.02.17 | Back to old TOS– 2009.02.26 | Opens its TOS for input from users
Terms Of Service (TOS)vs.
Regulation
Copyright? Civil rights? TOS?
Second Life Interview Incident
USA: Digital Millennium copyright Act (DMCA)
EU: EU Copyright Directive(EUCD)
Subpoena?
Fair Use?
If the effort it takes to file repeated claims is greater than the effort to create an account and repost a video, then certainly something is flawed.
My expectation would be that Linden Lab swiftly research that problem and close that loophole.
Otherwise it would raise questions about how ready Second Life actually is for professional use.
Video
[User-Generated Music Video]
Commerceof Virtual Goods
400,000 Gold Farmersin China & South Korea?
Identity Management
The New Yorker, 1993
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
Wired, 2005
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a bot.”
“Glider is a tool that plays your World of Warcraft character for you, the way you want it.
It grinds, it loots, it skins, it heals, it even farms soul shards... without you.”
Singleaccount
Multipleaccounts
Use ofBots
Sharedaccount
Shared accountUse of Bots
Whose persona?
Online & Offline Identities
Real namePen name
Anonymous
Identity dependson the social circle
Chapter 6.More Complexity
Regulating virtual worlds is already complicatedfor service providers
There.com CEO joins the conversation…as a voice over his avatar
Video
[Fix8 Demo]
Obama Outfitted With238 Motion Capture SensorsFor 3-D Record Of Presidency
…or not.
Howard Rheingold
ClayShirky
LawrenceLessig
Chapter 7.The Digital
Third Place
What is a third place?
Economic activities
Creative activities
Cultural products
Social environments
Digital Third Place
AfterwordWhat Next?
Necessary skillsfor the future?
Business is onlineOnline identity & reputation
are most important
Increase awarenessof the risks
and how to avoid them
Celebrate the benefits
About +8*
There are more ideas outside your country
than inside
Tom KelleyCEO, IDEO
The 10 faces of Innovation
“Innovation Arbitrage”
• About us– +8* | Plus Eight Star is the leading cross-market and cross-cultural consultancy in Asia.
– We provide local expertise & global perspective on mobile and Internet innovation from China, Japan and South Korea to add value to and accelerate the development of our clients’ businesses.
• Our services– Analysis of proven best practices and business models from Asia
– Other services: executive study trips, market entry strategy, M&A advisory, partners identification, negotiation support.
• Founder & CEO: Benjamin Joffe– 9 years experience with mobile & Internet in Asia
– Selected among “China’s Top 100 mobile industry influencers” in 2007
– Regular speaker at events on mobile and Internet in Asia
– Fluent in English, Japanese, French with working knowledge of Mandarin, Korean and Spanish
Selected References• Adidas | E-commerce strategy for China, Japan & Korea
• Bouygues Telecom | Cases studies of leading Asian Web 2.0 services and virtual worlds
• Deutsche Telekom / T-Online | Benchmark of Korean mobile & Internet convergence strategies
• Hemisphere | Analysis of mobile marketing best practices in Japan and South Korea (Hemisphere is a leading digital advertising agency), analysis of leading social platforms (SNS, virtual worlds, online games).
• Microsoft | Analysis of Japan’s key players and market catalysts for mobile commerce market positioning in China
• DeNA | Case studies of the best practices of leading social networks in China and South Korea (DeNA operates Mobile Game Town, Japan’s leading mobile SNS service)
• China Mobile | Benchmark of Korean leading online communities
• Sands Capital Management | Evaluation of China’s investment opportunities in social networks in China
Social Contribution
• Mobile Monday– Founder of the Mobile Monday forum in Beijing since 2006 (3,000+
members, 23 events, over 80 presentations).
• Media– Monthly column on Asian innovation for Asian Business Leaders (one of
the leading Chinese business magazines), numerous interviews in international media.
• Events– Regular keynote speaker and moderator at Internet, Telecom, Media and
Investment events
e.g. eComm, ITU Asia, Asia Venture Capital Forum, China Mobility International Summit, O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns, Red Herring Asia, Media 08 Conference, Wireless Developer Forum, Open Web Asia, XMediaLab, Mobile Monday Global Summit, etc.
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