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Any idea on Second Life ??? Second Life  is an internet based virtual world which developed by Linden Lab in 2003 & came to international attention via mainstream news media by 2007. In addition, Second Life also provides user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. Second Life‘s virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (L$) and is exchangeable for US Dollars (About L$300= $1 US Dollar) in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies.

 Anshe Chung is the main avatar (online personality) of Ailin Graef (real-world persona) in the online world Second Life who has made a million US dollars in SL since her business’s inception roughly two and a half years ago from an initial investment of $9.95 for a Second Life account by Anshe’s creator, Ailin Graef.

Anshe Chung has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items, and currencies, and has been featured in a number of prominent magazines such as Business Week.

The one of Anshe Chung’s island is named as Dreamland & you can stroll through the floating city she built 700 feet above a desert, walk through elegant Arabian-style homes on land she leases, strike up a conversation in Japanese amid her Asian gardens, or shop for a grand piano in one of her 600 boutiques.

Anshe Chung’s operations have since grown to include the development and sale of properties for large scale real world corporations, and have led to a real life “spin off” corporation called Anshe Chung Studios, which develops immersive 3D environments for applications ranging from education to business conferencing and product prototyping.

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In addition, Ailin Graef legally incorporated “Anshe Chung Studios, Ltd.” in Hubei, China with her husband and business partner, Guntram Graef who goes by the pseudonym “Guni Greenstein” in Second Life in february 2006. Anshe Chung believes Second Life’s rife with moneymaking opportunities. The key is to find a niche.

Besides, an analysis of the economy of Second Life before December 2006, published in The Guardian, suggested that the number of active Residents was “in the region of 100,000”, and its churn rate was over 85%. Second Life statistics claim that 144,108 customers spent money in-world in December 2006. As of April 2007, the total number of Second Life’s users reaching about 5 million & the total transaction per day in this virtual world SL  is more than 1 million US dollar.

However, most people are still puzzled why otherwise intelligent people would spend real money ( 1 US dollar =  300 Linden dollar) on virtual assets, none of which could ever be seen as necessities and all of which can only ever be used inside the Second Life community?

 What do you think  ???