| |
Real banks enter the world of virtual reality
|
An enormous, and growing, number of people seem to
be putting real life on hold and stepping into any of the scores
of imaginary worlds that thrive on the Internet. Virtual worlds,
such as Second Life, There and Entropia Universe, allow players
to create an alter ego in the form of an avatar -- a comic-book-style
persona -- and be anyone they want to be.
While much of virtual world life is social interaction,
players can also create a business and sell products and services to others. They
can then use that money for entertainment, or to buy clothing or land, to build
a house or start another business. In essence, players create an economy. While
the currencies of some worlds remain virtual, others allow an exchange for the
U.S. dollar either on site or at sites such as IGE, which lets players convert
virtual currency to a variety of real-world currencies. This
hasn't gone unnoticed by real-world banks, which are tiptoeing into virtual worlds.
A few are setting up offices or branches in virtual worlds primarily to be noticed
by the younger generations, who spend gobs of time and money on the Internet and
are more likely to do most, if not all, of their banking online. Early efforts
by these pioneering banks seem aimed at offering financial education versus selling
products and services, but that will surely change.
 |
| Banking in the virtual world |
| |
|
1. ABN AMRO, the leader
| | ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank, was the first European bank to create a virtual branch on the Second Life site.
Source: Linden Research, Inc., All rights reserved |
| |
|
| |
| Real
money in the virtual world
"In 2006 we had an in-game turnover
of $350 million," says David Simmonds, business development director for
MindArk, the Swedish company that created Entropia Universe. "Entropia is
a real-cash economy. That means people can take their real money and deposit it
in Entropia using bank transfers, credit cards and other payment providers to
get their money from the real world into the virtual world. There it's converted
into Project Entropia Dollars (PED), which have a fixed rate of 10 PEDs to one
U.S. dollar. If you went to Second Life and said, 'Can I have my money, please?'
they'd laugh at you. If you have $10,000 in Entropia money, you can take that
out from us directly, guaranteed." IGE, the market maker
for exchanging virtual money for real money, reports that virtual assets could
reach $7 billion by 2009. It's no wonder banks want to get on board. Dutch
financial services conglomerate ING, parent company of ING Direct, and Dutch bank
ABN AMRO have staked out property on Second
Life. ING's site
is under construction, but ABN AMRO
claims to be the first European bank to open a branch in Second Life. The company
holds financial seminars on the Web site and may, someday, allow customers to
conduct transactions. Daan Jitta, ING's director of channels
and innovation, says they're looking at it as a very interesting new trend in
communications. "At this moment we're happy with how it's going, but there
are some things that have to improve. They have to do some work around security,
identity and trust, so people know they can have a conversation and that it's
confidential, just as they would expect from a bank. If you can do that, then
you can do a lot in the virtual world. Other banks are looking at it as just an
educational (tool), but we have a higher perspective than that." |
