IBM recently announced a plan to increase the size of its Second Life presence, geographically located in Asia.
TV ads aside (you know the one in which the IBM manager appears to question the ROI of virtual worlds), IBM is spending an awful lot of time and money in virtual worlds. Perhaps the TV commercial is designed to keep others out of the space? Don't know. But I can't imagine dumping this much time and effort into a technology with no ROI.
I've often said that remote geographies (of course a relative term) can benefit from virtual worlds by rendering distance largely irrelevant in business. Consider the China Recreation District project, which will, as we understand, bring 150 million Chinese into virtual worlds for global commerce.
Well, IBM is building a well-recognized, multi-platform global organization connected to virtual worlds. Whenever the CRD happens, IBM will be there ready and willing to help in the space. |
