October 24th, 2006 by Wendy McAuliffe
This week’s Springwise newsletter, which is great for finding out about new business ideas, carries news of the first travel organisation to offer tours of virtual worlds such as Second Life, The Sims Online and Everquest.
Synthravels has been set-up by two Italian entrepreneurs, Mario Gerosa and Matteo Esposito, who are hoping to cash in on the popularity of online virtual worlds. As the worlds increase in complexity, the entry threshold for newbies rises, particularly for those who are new to online gaming.
To benefit from a tour, customers must register with Synthravels, pick a destination and preferred day and hour for the trip. Within a few days, he or she receives an itinerary by email. To prepare, a visitor has to download any software needed for the virtual world and create an avatar. Synthravels guides are experienced gamers and programmers, and claim to be able to train new users in the tricks of the trade.
The timing of Synthravel’s launch is perfect, and it will certainly be a company to watch over coming months. I’m not entirely sure of the revenue model as the tours appear to be free, but with brands such as Toyota, American Apparel and the BBC investing in Second Life alone, there is plenty of money to be made in this area.
I hope they’ve patented the idea, as it’s a perfect bandwaggon for others to leap on!
October 24th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Many brands may be launching on Second Life but questions need to start being asked, given the size of the virtual world and the actual user numbers, if they are getting anything more than PR?
October 25th, 2006 at 10:46 am
It’s true that tangible business results are yet to be proven from having an office in Second Life. In many ways it’s hard to believe that this virtual world, which when it launched was the domain of hardcore gamers, is now such a mainstream marketing proposition. The Second Life audience is currently the size of a small city, and it remains to be seen whether it can stand the test of time from a revenue and marketing perspective.
October 25th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Size of a small city, yes - but only has a population of a small village at any given moment. As a promotional space it probably has the same footfall as Oxford Street or a l;arge shopping centre, but spread otu across a very large virtual geography.
Brands will get some positive PR from doing interestign things in the world - Aloft Hotels is aprime example - but they need to be in it for more than that to justify the effort: e.g. R&D, using it as a virtual meeting space or a creative space for their designers and key partners and customers.