My Alibaba

Out and about after an interesting day, helping with a guided tour for about a dozen newcomers, I stumbled upon the intriguingly-entitled My Alibaba sim and its immediately adjacent neighbour, the rather more prosaically named HongKong Island sim. Not too sure what to expect, I opted to teleport and found myself at a Hong Kong racetrack - which I assume is Happy Valley. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Hmmm... so what has this to do with Alibaba???

I'm glad you asked. In truth, I'm not 100% sure of the answer - but here's my shot at it. My Alibaba is a reference to Alibaba.com. Launched in 1999 and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007, Alibaba.com, according to their website, "is the world's leading B2B e-commerce company. We provide an efficient, trusted platform connecting small and medium-size buyers and suppliers from around the world...Our international marketplace (www.alibaba.com) focuses on global importers and exporters and our China marketplace (www.alibaba.com.cn) focuses on suppliers and buyers trading domestically in China. Together our marketplaces form a community of more than 27 million registered users from over 200 countries and regions." Gulp!! And muggins here had never heard of 'em until I found these sims. Given their global B2B reach, it strikes me as a sensible use of Second Life to explore how they might use virtual worlds as another B2B channel - at least, until the Cyber Recreation District comes onstream later in 2008.

The pair of sims are both under development, with the HongKong Island sim rather more advanced than its next door neighbour. The former has a number of large, modern buildings, typical of the Hong Kong skyline. I think these include versions of the Bank of China Tower and the International Finance Centre. Perhaps the most striking feature of the sim, though, is the Tian Tan Buddha and associated temple complex. The modern buildings offer shopping, and there is a small orientation area. The My Alibaba sim seems to be mid-development, with a lot of familiar-looking plywood boxes dotting the site. The dominant feature is the race track (you can race motorbikes right now, but horses are still being sorted out), around the edge of which you will (eventually) find a number of businesses.

Of course, I may be entirely wrong about the background to these sims - in which case, feel free to pass on the real story. But while we wait - here's a few pictures to contemplate:

Quoting The HiPiHi CEO, Xu Hui

If you follow this blog, you will know I have a keen interest in the development of virtual worlds in the Far East, and especially China. Why China? The first point is the sheer size of the potential user base, which could run into the tens, or even hundreds, of millions. A virtual world with resident populations of this size would be hard to ignore! However, I am also intrigued to see how the Chinese state reacts in the face of open virtual worlds, with an international population - as envisaged by Mr Xu, CEO of HiPiHi.

I was therefore interested to read (and thought I would repost) the following quotes from Xu Hui, given in his presentation to Virtual Worlds 2007 and recorded in Virtual Worlds News:

I’ve been interacting with the users, and when I meet those not from China, they’re surprised at how the virtual world replicates the real and how much they’re learning from just a 30-minute walk in the virtual world. Most people only experience China through products made in China. That’s not the best way. There are around 1.6 billion internet users in the world, but virtual worlds could be the best way to experience the web.

With time virtual worlds will mature as mainstream society increases in understanding. We will collaborate with industry providers and content providers to make that happen. We have a large market and a great desire for globalization.

And on HiPiHi:
We will launch our own virtual currency in the future. But we won’t manage this brokerage. We want to encourage existing financial services from the real world to come in. Brokerages are not run directly by the government. So we will use that real world model to replicate them in virtual worlds.

We will be focusing on tracking down the identity of avatars in the virtual world. They won’t be able to be changed easily. Your address and information will stay with you throughout your virtual existence. Second, we don’t intend to be a government in the world. We don’t operate in that kind of top down fashion. We will operate in a more self-policing mechanism. The community and users will flag unacceptable interactions. The third part is again on the self-policing mechanism. We won’t have any strict rules for all users to follow. We will have a guideline that is currently in development.

And finally, here is far and away the coolest thing I've read in a while:
I am of the belief that the modern soul can be partitioned into two parts. One is the real self, and one is the avatar. We spend so much time creating identity online that is can’t even really be considered a virtual identity anymore.

Chinese School - Michigan State University

After a couple of posts that have been lacking in photos, I thought I should redress the balance. Tonight's foray took me close to Kolding Danmark, that I mentioned yesterday. "Close" in SL terms, but in Real Life a long way apart - for this trip was to Chinese School, run by Michigan State University.

The sim provides a number of lessons in Chinese - I am assuming Mandarin, though that wasn't clear. At the moment, although many of the buildings appear complete, it is clearly still under development - with a lot of "virtual building rubble" lying about and many of the features awaiting completion, such as the calligraphy house. The lessons appear to work fine though - at least the ones I tried. You can pick up a HUD* to guide you around - but this, too, seemed to be far from ready. In picking up the HUD, it suggests you can win L$ - always a good way to bring in the punters! The accompanying card tells me: "You will be given missions on this island which will result in gaining and spending money and other items. You will have to demonstrate an increasing knowlege of the chinese language in order to progress." I did not spend long enough to find out if this works yet - but I'm guessing not. Anyway... to the photos:



There are some cute ideas at work here - if a little raw at the moment. For example, the guy in the restaurant (see above) has an animated face, so that in theory it looks like he is actually talking to you. In fact, he looks like he has a major eye infection to me - but the idea is a nice one. At the bottom right you can see a still from the first lesson, shown on a video box. The movie I saw was a bit stilted - but then it's not there to win Oscars, but teach basic language skills!

Disconcertingly, the island is dotted with "chat listeners" that will record all chat near them. On reflection, I realise my initial paranoia about Big Brother China listening in on conversations was somewhat misplaced. I'm not entirely clear of the purpose - but I think there are sound educational reasons for doing this! Or so I like to think.

As for the builds - to me most are rather garish, lacking in much subtlety or depth of texture. But perhaps plans are in place to render them a little more convincingly. It seems that the majority of the work is complete here, and I would hope it was only a matter of weeks (who knows? Maybe days) before it opens officially.

*Head-Up Display

Update 12th Dec 07:
Title corrected from "University of Michigan" to "Michigan State University."

China and Virtual Worlds - UOneNet

Quote from the ever-reliable Virtual World News:

Beijing-based virtual worlds developer UOneNet* plans to launch a new virtual world called “uWorld" in 1Q 2008, according to redlinechina.com. uWorld is a 3D virtual community that allows users to live, interact, and conduct business together. Users of uWorld will be able to purchase virtual real estate, start businesses, create social circles, and make and sell virtual items. Alpha testing for uWorld will begin in December 2007, says the article. The founder of UOneNet, Eric Ye, was a former software architect at IBM and has a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern California (USC). The company has been focusing on building a reliable backend, including its own proprietary technology called UniG, which is being used to build uWorld, the article says. UOneNet plans to design the virtual world to appeal to Chinese users by adding more in-game tutorials and content creation tools. Currently, UOneNet is operating with a mixture of angel and venture funding and has 60 employees total, according to redlinechina.com.



* The UOneNet webpage has an "English" button - but this seems to do sweet FA. On the other hand, the uWorld website has a fair amount of English content.

China and Virtual Worlds

If you are like me, then you probably have interests in virtual worlds beyond Second Life. So you might be interested to read this article, posted at the excellent Virtual Worlds News blog.

The gist is:
The China Recreation District (CRD), a joint government-private partnership based in Beijing, is to build a country-wide infrastructure to support the deployment of virtual worlds. As I have posted elsewhere in this blog, China is going through a massive ramp-up in its use of virtual worlds - and not just the familiar Entropia and HiPiHi worlds. There is apparently an aim to invite external virtual worlds to join the infrastructure. Anyone visiting Virtual Worlds'07 in San Jose will be able to find out more, as Chi Tai Robert Lai, Chief Scientist with the CRD, will be presenting at the forum.

The CRD describes itself as: "The home of the leading edge of television and digital entertainment in China... Formed in 2001 as Panorama Media and through consolidation offive companies and renamed CRD Co. Ltd, in 2006, CRD is one of the leading independent television and digital content companies in China."

I am sure this will raise a few questions, such as:

• What about Chinese government insularity, open access and the Great Firewall? Inviting in overseas companies may compromise their view of security - or it may actually make it easier to police.

• The creation of infrastructure seems a long way from the company's core competencies, although the extension of interactive media to include virtual worlds is a logical step. Why do they feel qualified and able to undertake such an enterprise? Or have I misinterpreted their intention?

• Who are they aiming at? The "social" virtual worlders or the "gamer" virtual worlders. Given China's strong bias towards the latter, is there a planned place for the social virtual worlds?

I look forward to reading more as this story unfolds. I would expect virtual world companies to be trampling over each other in the rush to get onboard and tap in to this huge and lucrative market. Incidentally, there is no mention of this on the company website.

Manpower and More on Chinese Virtual Worlds

I'm getting worried... I am now spending most of my blogging efforts surfacing other people's news and views, and failing in my self-appointed mission to travel the less-frequented places of Second Life in search of new, tasty tidbits to present for your delectation. And this post is no exception.

First up, I have had a mail from text100 to advise me of a new sim opening this week. Since Text100 are experts in getting the message out, I shall not plagiarise but simply quote (pretty much) verbatim:

What does success look like in this emerging “World of Virtual Work?” What are the opportunities, what are the risks? And what are the rules of engagement for employers, employees, entrepreneurs, customers and job seekers?

In celebration of the launch of the company’s island in Second Life, Manpower, a world leader in employment services, will host a virtual panel discussion this Thursday to explore these important issues. Several prominent Second Life avatars who are active in the virtual business community will address the many open questions on the “World of Virtual Work.”

When: Thursday, July 12, at 3 pm Eastern/12 pm Pacific Time
Where: Manpower sim

There's a lot more - but that gives you the salient facts, I think.

+++

Now for more on Chinese Virtual Worlds. It's been a busy few weeks among the wheelers and dealers in the Chinese VW marketplace. Here's the straight poop, from the pages of Virtual Worlds Weekly:

• Shanda, an interactive media company in China, announced that it was acquiring Aurora Technology, a leading virtual world developer and operator in China. Aurora Technology currently operates two 3D virtual worlds, Feng Yun Online and Legend Online, and is recognized as one of the top ten MMORPG brands in China's domestic MMORPG market. Aurora brings an extensive network for online and offline multi-channel pre-paid game card distribution. "The acquisition will also help us establish a new R&D center in Chengdu," said Tianqiao Chen, Chairman and CEO of Shanda, "which is one of Western China's major cities, to make full use of local talents and technologies for game development."

• Network Game Interaction (NGI), a Beijing-based in-game advertising service provider founded in 2005, recently announced that it completed its series A funding of about $10 million from GSR Ventures.(via China Venture). NGI cooperates with about 50 top Chinese online games, including MMORPG and leisure games, to provide online ads inside games. NGI claims its partnered online games cover over 70% of Chinese game players.

• Beijing-based developer and operator of online games Perfect World has filed for an IPO on Nasdaq to sell up to $100 million in ADRs, reports PaidContent.org. For Q107, the company earned $5.18 million compared with a loss of $559k in the year-ago quarter. Its revenues increased to $11.3 million from $1.2 million. The company develops 3D multi-player online games, including role-playing games Perfect World, Legend of Martial Arts, Perfect World II, and Zhu Xian.

• Chinese company, Yilu is finishing production of its first virtual world. In English the name of the platform is MyLife, but in Chinese it's Di Er Ren Sheng, which translates as Second Life. Like Linden Lab's Second Life, the game will follow real-life settings, but it will not allow for user-created content and instead will rely on a heavier gameplay element.

Now I really must write something original - with pictures.

PS: I'm still wrestling with trying to get HiPiHi running! But I will get there eventually.

China and Virtual Worlds

I came across an article in the Asia Times, that you might find interesting. It concerns the burgeoning appetite - and market - for 3D virtual worlds in China. Rather than focusing on the Mindark deal, which will see Entropia entering the marketplace, it looks in more detail at the (for me) more intriguing prospect of HiPiHi. This is a "home grown" Chinese virtual world, still in Beta test, that apparently bears uncanny similarities to Second Life (although no decision has yet been taken concerning the implementation of an inworld currency).

In the article Ken Brady, a director of international strategies at Centric, is quoted as saying: "China's the No 2 market now, with Blizzard and Shanda Entertainment just two of the major players. HiPiHi will launch this autumn, Entropia Universe is moving in soon, and Shanda has announced plans to create another Chinese virtual world. There are, of course, more out there, and many more coming. It's a busy time in China's online 3D landscape."

HiPiHi will face fierce competition. For example, Shanda Interactive Entertainment,China's leading online gaming company, has been developing a virtual-world game similar to Second Life. Meanwhile, UOneNet Technology have been developing their virtual world, called "uWorld." Yet another new virtual world in development for China is Frenzoo, which is aimed squarely at the youth market.

These will need to slug it out with highly successful Far East virtual worlds, like South Korea's Cyworld, which launched in China in 2005. It boasts 19 million residents in South Korea alone - some 40% of the population - and now has more that 3 million residents in China.

All in all, an interesting 12 months in prospect in China! And where will this leave Linden Lab, who have signally failed to break into this market so far?