Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Sony unveils Move, its PS3 motion controller, [2] Final Fantasy XIII English version, [3] Ubisoft on DRM snafu: servers attacked, pirates locked out, [4] X-Mini Happy and [5] YOG launches virtual world to reach out to youths. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

IE will seed the discussion by sharing on possible business opportunities from the international marketplace and channels of assistance available for industry collaboration, covering specific go-to-market costs. Key agencies involved in the virtual world industry development in Singapore will also be present at this industry networking session.

Date: Thursday, 5th November 2009
Time: 14:30 – 17:35
Venue: 230, Victoria Street, Level 10, Bugis Junction Office Tower, Singapore 188024

Please RSVP to events@virtuallythursday.com with your name and contact info. Light refreshments will be provided throughout the event.

For more information, please contact:
Mr. Cheong Zhaoyong
CHEONG_Zhaoyong @iesingapore.gov.sg
Tel: + 65 6433 4733

*Based on available seats on a first come first served basis for the first 50 registrants.

BL: Hi Jeremy, great to have you here in SGE. Tell us about your background and how did you get involved with Twinity and Metaversum?
Jeremy: My background is in software and business. I started out in the language industry, working for the leading maker of language productivity software for about 7 years. From 2003 onward, I led the team that was focused on bringing our enterprise software package to the web. We created a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering that was very successful and profitable. When you look below the surface, virtual worlds are also a SaaS application, with a client-server architecture and an emerging business model. That allowed me to bring together my experience with an exciting new area. I was present at the founding of Metaversum, having previously worked with our CEO.

BL: We understand that Twinity is a 3D virtual world that links the real with the virtual world based on realistic replicas of the world’s most vibrant metropolises. What are the three interesting features of Twinity that you will like people to know?

Jeremy: Twinity has a great set of baseline features that you’ll find in all the leading virtual world platforms, but the things that really set Twinity apart are the quality of the city environments, the ability to upload your own photos and create an avatar that’s truly you, and the multimedia features in Twinity. We’re able to create a lot of very exciting experiences that combine socializing, video, web content, in-world browsers, and game elements, all in a persistent 3D environment.

BL: Given there are many virtual worlds out there, how does Twinity distinguish itself from the other virtual worlds like Second Life and HiPiHi?
Jeremy: Really the main difference is the focus on the connection to reality. Twinity has real cities and lets the members be themselves, from using their real names to using their real faces. Twinity starts with the premise that a virtual world can enhance your life online, instead of escaping from it.

BL: Does Twinity open its platform for developers and partners? If so, how do developers and partners contribute to the platform?
Jeremy: We do have a developer program that interested parties can contact us directly to get more information about. Our approach on that side is largely to leverage existing tools and standards. For instance, Twinity supports Collada imports, which lets professional art and modeling companies re-use 3D existing content in Twinity.

BL: We understand Twinity has opened a replica of Berlin city as a beta. What are the activities that most users do within the Berlin virtual world?
Jeremy: We see most Twinizens (Twinity members) spending time exploring the city, where we have a number of the most important tourist and historical landmarks (and more coming), and then the social experiences. Most Twinizens get their own apartments, decorate them with furniture and embedded media, like photos and video. Then they invite their friends over and have parties.

BL: How does Twinity help brands to engage users within the virtual worlds? Any interesting case studies you like to share with us?
Jeremy: I can’t share numbers, like virtual item sales or views or so on, since that’s between us and the brand owners, but there are two examples from Twinity that I would like to talk about. Those are the movie launches for both The Spirit and Angels and Demons. For The Spirit, we created a set of sunglasses that Twinizens could wear on their avatars. That gave Twinity the look and feel of The Spirit graphic novel. With those sunglasses on, we put out a contest for creating your best screenshots or machinima (in-world video). The winner made a cool video that was posted on YouTube, and he won an autographed copy of the original. For Angels and Demons, we created a game in Twinity. It was based on the same theme of solving clues embedded in symbols and finding the answer to the mystery. Twinizens who completed the quest could enter a drawing for some cool prizes. These are examples of experience-based marketing, which has been proven to be more effective in engaging communities than traditional media advertising.

BL: What do you see are the trends happening in virtual worlds and where is heading?
Jeremy: I think virtual worlds are going to grow more and more in the next 3–5 years. Bandwidth improvements and GPU advances will continue to make the whole experience smoother and better. Beyond that, I think more web content will be integrated into virtual worlds. We see things like social networking evolving naturally into a virtual world, letting people go beyond asynchronous communication to more engaging 3D interactions with their friends online.

BL: What do you think are the three most important traits for an entrepreneur?
Jeremy: Persistence, vision and people skills. I do think you need some insight to see a big problem and come up with a simple solution to it. Once you’ve got that, you have to be committed and willing to work hard and long. And there are very few people in the world who can see a problem, design a solution and bring it to market all by themselves, so those people skills come in handy, whether for getting developers to write code for you, getting people to want to spread the message for you, or for working with investors.

BL: What are the challenges that you have encountered in setting up a company in Singapore? Any interesting thoughts to share?
Jeremy: Actually, I found moving here and getting set up quite easy. The only challenge I faced was on getting a bank account set up as a wholly foreign-owned entity (WFOE). I had to show a fair amount of documentation to get that squared away.

BL: Jeremy, thank you for the event and we wish you and Twinity all the best.

Jeremy Snyder is the VP Asia-Pacific, Operations & Community for Metaversum, makers of the online virtual world Twinity. Twinity is the first virtual world that mashes up with the real world, bringing the power of real people and real cities into a virtual world. Jeremy is responsible for day-to-day operations, support and community management at Twinity, as well as the Managing Director of the Singapore office of Metaversum. Jeremy’s past work experience includes 6 years in various online ventures, as well as 6 years in software. Jeremy has a BA in Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and an MBA in Enterprise Management from George Mason University (USA).

The Virtual Worlds panel brought together speakers who build virtual worlds (Jeremy Snyder, Twinity), financial service provider for virtual worlds (Aileen Sim, First Meta), provider of a virtual mobile technology aimed at enterprises (James Ong, Origami Frontiers), new media and virtual site destination producer (Aroon Tan, Magma Studios), where game characters and films collide (Ho Chee Yue, Association of MACHINIMA Arts and Sciences) and our champion for the marriage of museums and new media (Walter Lim, National Heritage Board).

The whole session covered topics from business opportunities to virtual world governance to the virtual economy and the trading of virtual currency. Aroon started the talk with a brief overview of how response happens immediately in these interactive virtual worlds, where whatever a character does, the interactive environment receives your feedback immediately. This is in line with the drastic change in paradigm and what this means for entrepreneurs is that, we need to think of how to sustain business opportunities, how to expand the more traditional elements like advertising and subscription elements inside these virtual worlds.

Directed at budding virtual world creators, Jeremy of Twinity talked about the need for compelling reasons to participate in your virtual world. Why yours? For Twinity, the question for them while creating the virtual world is: How can we put something out there that is interesting for people, and doesn’t take them away completely from their life? Because they believe that even if you play World of Warcraft for 40 hours a week, you still need to live in the real world. It is not possible to have a total divide. As such, he claims that Twinity is the only virtual world that is based on the real world. (I don’t really understand how having more realistic 3D virtual worlds translates to not taking you completely away from your real life? Unless ‘real’ just means physical surroundings.)

One of the biggest topics discussed was about monetization in virtual worlds. According to Chee Yue, be it in the real world or virtual world, to make real money out of marketing you need to be very sharp. The question to ask is: Will you be able to create something that people will be able to pay? Aileen reminded us that:

“When people buy virtual goods, they are not paying for the item per se, but actually paying for the way a certain item makes them feel.”

This is something I believe all retailers in the real and virtual worlds will attest to.

For Walter, he suggested two ways of looking at monetization: horizontal – like First Meta, building an across-the-board platform, or vertical – drilling down into specific industries like education or automotives. Another warning from Jeremy is that if a company is thinking of advertising in virtual worlds, flat ads are out of the question. Why do flat ads when you can do interactive ads that take advantage of the interactivity of virtual worlds?

I believe this goes the same for many other paradigm shifts for example from print to web for magazines/newspapers and even comics. Check this TED video out for a good look at new forms of comic strips that opens up when we move from print to web (eg. infinite comic loops are comic strips where the end of the comic is also the start of the same comic strip). Or try out Comic Chat (create your own comic strip as you chat).

Lastly, on the topic of currency trading, there were points regarding the trading of virtual currency and currency exchange between virtual currency and real world currency. As questions were being asked from the floor regarding making a living in virtual worlds, the panel touched upon the legalities of making money in virtual worlds, and thereafter converting the virtual currency into real world currency you can use to buy food for sustenance. They noted that while it is probably required that one register a business or recognize income from your virtual world activities, a large number of people do not do so. As a result, the illegitimate virtual economy would most likely be much larger than the legit one. Meaning, the black market definitely exists and is thriving! Just that like with the real world’s black market, it is not always visible to most of us.

Picture from left: Chee Yue (Machinima), James (Origami), Jeremy (Twinity), Walter (National Heritage Board), Aileen (First Meta), Aroon (Magma Studios).

NUS Entrepreneurship Week – Big Bang Tuesday! 20 January 2009

An excellent week deserves some great hype, and that’s the theme for the second day – Big Bang Tuesday! Start off the day by finding out the innovative ways of running a business not here, but in the alternate realm of virtual reality, where everything is possible, at the tip of your finger. And if that is not enticing enough, look out for the stars of the local business arena during the grand opening ceremony in the evening. Celebrate with the industries’ elites and learn the robes on how to become the next successful entrepreneur in this world of possibilities – right here in NUS! Soar through the week with a blasting start!

Highlights of the Day

Business in Virtual Worlds | 2.00pm – 4.00pm | LT18, NUS Business School

In conjunction with NUS Entrepreneurship Week, TDM brings to you “Doing Business in Virtual Worlds”. Step forward and find out more about TDM and how you can be a part of it, as we present to you a quick overview of the organization AND a little preview of what it means to do business in Virtual Worlds. Hear from representatives who have a wealth of experience in this arena! Multiple Worlds; Multiple Lives; Multiple Identities; Multiple ways to making money! See you then!

Eweek Opening Ceremony : Think Big-Make it Happen! | 6.00pm – 9.00pm | Hon Sui Sen Auditorium, NUS Business School

You are cordially invited to the inaugural Eweek Opening Ceremony on 20th January to learn more about the entire week’s program and how you can be the part of this movement in creating the entrepreneurial buzz in the local youth community! Events highlight includes a panel discussion: Think Big Make It Happen! featuring Mr Inderjit Singh, Deputy Chairman of ACE and Mr Benedict Soh, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of Kingsmen Creatives Ltd.

Regards,
The Start-Up@Singapore 2009 Team,
on behalf of NUS Entrepreneurship Society

Something interesting popped up in China today – 22 Nov 2007. Remember HiPiHi (as pronounced High-P-High), the China-based company which is currently involved in the virtual worlds market. Since our last encounter with Xu Hui, CEO of HiPiHi sometime back, we have heard that Intel China and HiPiHi have announced today that they are entering into a technology partnership. The interesting part is that Intel is not entering as just a usual corporate resident but committed towards supporting technical needs of a virtual world platform. They will be setting up a brand experience centre in the Intel island that seeks to enhance the interaction with the consumers (or users), and the details will be announced later. The HiPiHi CEO has remarked that, “As China’s first company to enter into the virtual worlds market, HiPiHi has already attracted Intel and P&G which are well-established multi-national companies. We believe that there are other companies of such stature who will join us in the future and take HiPiHi to the next level such that it will add value and attract more enterprises and consumers to join us.” (Translated from eNet.com.cn). Here’s an interesting perspective to think about. This strategic collaboration between HiPiHi and Intel is reminiscent of the Second Life and IBM one sometime back. (Also check out Wagner James Au’s ‘First Looks at a ‘Chinese 2nd Life‘)

Overhyped or not, virtual worlds are growing in numbers, as are their users. Whether it turns out to be a fad or not remains to be seen, but here Gwen speaks to the lady behind First Meta, a startup offering you financial services in virtual worlds. First Meta has been featured on international sites and news like TechCrunch, WIRED, BBC, BusinessWeek, London Times Online etc. Also, it was was one of four Singapore companies to win a Red Herring 100 Asia award this year! Aileen gives us her story.

Gwen: Congratulations on all your recent accolades! First Meta certainly seems to be doing well. So Aileen, how do you feel about your recent media success?
Aileen: Thank you! =) It feels great! I think it is wonderful that First Meta is receiving recognition at the international level. The company has definitely benefited from our recent press coverage.

Gwen: What is First Meta?
Aileen: First Meta provides real financial services provider tailored to virtual economies. The company is the first to provide a full suite of financial products and services, denominated in virtual currencies, to Second Life® and other virtual economies. The company’s first product, the MetaCardTM a Linden Dollar-denominated credit card was launched on 31-July 2007. First Meta Pte. Ltd. was founded in 2007 by Douglas Abrams and Aileen Sim.

Gwen: What were the initial challenges and difficulties that you faced as an entrepreneur? And specifically, as a female entrepreneur?
Aileen: There were several initial challenges and difficulties (though not specific to being female) that we had to overcome. The first was ironing out a lot of the issues that were present in the old business plan where we targeted game-centric virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, which at that time and still is, the largest virtual economy. Those questions were answered when we decided to shift our focus to socio-economic centric virtual worlds such as Second Life.

The next challenge was in finding good people. We needed people who were not only technically strong but entrepreneurial. They had to build a completely new system from scratch, which usually means a high chance of failure, and also risk not getting paid as the company had not yet secured funding at that time. We were very fortunate to have been able to find such people.

On being young and female, it was challenging initially (even before First Meta, during my undergraduate days) to get people to take me seriously. However, that quickly passed when people started to see that I was actually doing something concrete and producing results.

Gwen: Some predict the death of virtual worlds, what are your thoughts on this?
Aileen: I think that virtual worlds are not going away any time soon. Over the last few decades, people’s lives have shifted more and more onto virtual spaces, be it for socializing, business or entertainment. But virtual spaces such as the web, to date have provided primarily a solitary experience in a flat, 2D space. Interactive, immersive, connected, 3D spaces which are the virtual worlds that we know of today is the next logical progression.

There are several trends that indicate that virtual worlds are here to stay.

- Firstly, the increasing focus on entertainment. When the internet and the web first became popular, they were primarily used for work and communication purposes. In recent years, there has been more and more focus on entertainment, with people using the internet for games, music, movies etc, giving rise to sites like KaZaa, YouTube, Joost etc. Virtual worlds with their rich interface provide the potential for more compelling, engaging forms of entertainment.

- Secondly, the rise of social networking. Virtual worlds are the ultimate social networking tools, allowing for rich, interactive and immersive communication and experiences. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have grown tremendously popular and I believe that that will spill over into virtual worlds.

Gwen: What kind of development in other virtual worlds would interest you in expanding there?
Aileen: The development of open economies and virtual currencies that are freely tradable into real-world currencies. We believe that these virtual worlds will be more sustainable than traditional virtual worlds with closed economies, as can be seen from the parallel in real-world economies. Also, we’re very interested in expanding into virtual worlds that are targeted at Asian countries, such as China and Japan as we believe that is a lot of growth potential in Asia.

Gwen: Where do you see the financial sector in virtual worlds eventually heading?
Aileen: I think that in the long run, the financial sector in virtual worlds will become full fledged economies just like real world economies. I think of each virtual world as a new and developing country with its own economy, and a population that is already financially savvy. Virtual world economies will grow at a much faster rate than real-world economies and eventually catch up with them.

Aileen Sim and her alter ego, Tyra Fierrens in Second Life

Gwen: How sensitive are you of your presence in male-dominated industries and situations? Do you feel that people (men especially) react differently to you than to other men?
Aileen: I wouldn’t say that I’m very sensitive about being female in male-dominated environments, but I definitely do think that men react differently to women than they would to other men, mostly in a good way though. For example, at networking sessions, men would almost always prefer to talk to women than they would to other men. I think that being female has its advantages. One of the things an entrepreneur has to do is stand out from the crowd. Being one of very few female entrepreneurs has helped in that aspect.

Gwen: Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Aileen: No I don’t consider myself a feminist. I am very happy to let the men carry the grocery bags and pay for meals if they offer. =) Jokes aside, I think in the same way that men shouldn’t be considered superior to women, women also shouldn’t be considered superior to men. Both men and women play different roles in society and in most modern societies, men and women are to a large extent given equal opportunities.

Gwen: What motivates you each morning when you wake up?
Aileen: On the micro level, I would say my biggest motivation is my team and my family. Every person in the team has staked a lot in First Meta. Knowing that these people count on me keeps me going. If First Meta succeeds, I’d be able to provide a good life for my family.

On the macro level, it is the realization that I can really make an impact on the world. It has been a while since Singapore has seen a huge success story. It takes only one company to succeed in a big way to convince everyone else that that big dream is not so impossible. This will in turn spur more people to start up companies, drive innovation and create more jobs. On an even larger scale, I believe that virtual worlds have the potential to further flatten the world and First Meta can play a big role in accelerating that. What we bring about is a mindset change that virtual worlds can be a viable business platform. Having credible financial services is essential for any economy to grow, to create more jobs and opportunities for people around the world.

Gwen: Some last words for all budding entrepreneurs out there?
Aileen: Don’t give up if people tell you if yours is the craziest, stupidest idea ever. That’s what people said to me when I first pitched the idea (some still do!) One big factor that determines the success or failure of the company is how long you can hang in there. If you hang around long enough, good things are bound to happen. For those who are still thinking of starting your own business, stop thinking and start doing. Especially for young entrepreneurs, you’ve got nothing to lose.

Links:

- News Flash: First Meta featured on TechCrunch
- News Flash: 4 Singaporean Companies win Red Herring Asia Awards 2007