The trend of company after company announcing they were setting up shop in Second Life proved to be little more than a fad. Perhaps it was good for an initial publicity stunt, but many of the companies that entered the virtual world found it to be fairly worthless, from a marketing standpoint. The company behind Second Life, Linden Labs, doesn’t seem to think this is why companies are staying away, rather it’s because of all the sex-related activity that goes on there. So it’s planning to move all of that to an “Adult Continent”, so companies and brands will feel more comfortable stepping in to Second Life. While perhaps you have to admire their optimism, it doesn’t seem likely that restricting sex-related activities to a virtual red-light district will suddenly make Second Life worthwhile for businesses. Furthermore, with the sex stuff believed to make up the vast majority of the Second Life economy, moving to restrict it in hopes of chasing companies’ marketing dollars may not be a great strategy.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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