Anshe Chung

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Anshe Chung
AnsheChung BusinessWeek Cover.gif
May 1, 2006 cover of BusinessWeek magazine featuring Anshe Chung
Born
Second Life
OccupationVirtual real estate broker
Known forFirst 'virtual millionaire'
Website anshechung.com

Anshe Chung is an avatar (online personality) of Ailin Graef in the online world Second Life . Referred to as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by CNN, [1] Graef has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items, and currencies. Her work has been discussed in Business Week , [2] Fortune [3] and Red Herring .

Contents

Background

According to Chung, she had already created fortunes in purely virtual currency on other MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call and Shadowbane , [4] but had never converted that to real tender. This changed when she entered Second Life, where the in-game currency, "Linden Dollars" (L$), can be officially exchanged for real money. [5] [6]

In her early Second Life days, prior to founding the business that made her famous, Anshe Chung had a goal of using virtual wealth to support an orphaned boy in a developing country in the real world. With her first Linden dollars she was able to sponsor a boy named Geo from the Philippines through a German church organization. [7] She raised funds through event hosting, escorting, [3] [8] teaching [9] and fashion design.

Business

According to Chung, in June 2004 she began selling and creating custom animations and then used this money to buy and develop virtual land. This is also considered the beginning of her business where, for the first time, she kept and reinvested funds instead of giving them away. Chung currently owns thousands of servers' worth of land, most of which are sold or rented to other users as a part of her 'Dreamland' areas. Within Dreamland various levels of zoning rules are enforced; most other land in Second Life is unzoned, with multiple different types of business or housing located in adjacent areas. [10] Philip Rosedale, the former CEO of Linden Lab – the company that produces Second Life – has referred to Anshe as "the government" when referring to the role she plays managing her regions. [11]

According to Dr. James Cook of Linden Lab, "Anshe adds significant value to Second Life". [12]

In February 2006 "Anshe Chung Studios, Ltd." was legally incorporated in Hubei, China [13]

In November 2006 Chung announced that she had "become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world". [13]

Meanwhile, Anshe Chung's business employs more than 80 people full-time, most of them programmers and artists. She counts several Fortune 100 companies among her clients as well as high-profile organizations such as the government of Baden-Wuerttemberg and LifeChurch.tv, whose Second Life entry her firm developed.

In January 2007 Anshe Chung Studios received venture capital investment from the Samwer brothers, who purchased a stake in the Anshe Chung Studios. [14] [15] In September 2007 the Gladwyne Partners, who had previously funded the Electric Sheep Company, also obtained stake in the Anshe Chung Studios.

Since 2006 the company has been active in IMVU, a 3D avatar chat. She has since been operating the largest currency exchange and content creation business for that platform, with about half of the 100 top selling products in IMVU originating from her company in Wuhan, while a considerable amount of the remaining top sellers are said to be coming from people who were originally trained in her company. During Anshe Chung's involvement with IMVU, that service's userbase has increased 50-fold, outgrowing Second Life in late 2007.[ citation needed ]

New Champion of the World Economy

In 2007, the Anshe Chung Studios were chosen as a "New Champion of the World Economy" by the World Economic Forum, describing the company as a business with a major technical or economic impact and the potential to become a Fortune 500 company within the next 5 years.[ citation needed ]

From 2005 until January 2009, Anshe Chung also owned a 30% share in Virtuatrade, a Pennsylvania-based company operating the site XStreetSL.com, a virtual goods trading site similar to eBay but specializing in Second Life items. The company was eventually sold to Linden Lab. XStreetSL has now become an integral part of Second Life called the "Second Life Marketplace". [16] [17]

In July 2008, a new portal site called AnsheX [18] became available, operated by her company in Wuhan. The new site merges the services, communities and currency exchanges of several monetized virtual worlds, attempting to bridge the gaps between them.

According to several sources, including a title in the October 2009 issue of Avenue Magazine, Anshe Chung joined the founders of Skype as a key investor behind the 3D fashion games developer Frenzoo. [19] [20]

In 2010, Anshe Chung helped fund a new venture called the 3D Avatar School, [21] which is using virtual world technology to create immersive language teaching environments. [22]

In 2012, the 3D Avatar School won both the Red Herring Asia 100 and Red Herring Global 100 awards, [23] while Frenzoo landed a hit on Android and iOS with the world's first 3D dress-up game, Style Me Girl. [24]

By early 2014, Anshe Chung Limited had acquired an investment portfolio with several additional Internet and technology startups including Sellfy, [25] Beyond Games, [26] Makibox, [27] IMVUCE, [28] [29] and ArtsCraft Entertainment, developer of MMORPG game Crowfall. [30] [31]

Target of griefing

In December 2006, while conducting an interview for CNET with Daniel Terdiman on her economic assets, the virtual studio in which the interview took place was bombarded by flying animated penises. The griefers managed to disrupt the interview sufficiently that Chung was forced to move to another location and ultimately crashed the simulator entirely. [32] Video and images of the incident were posted on the website Something Awful, and the incident received notice in some blogs and online news sites.

This attack in Second Life later became a template for a real life flying penis attack on chess world champion and Russian presidential candidate Garry Kasparov. [33]

See also

Related Research Articles

A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter these virtual economies for recreation and entertainment rather than necessity, which means that virtual economies lack the aspects of a real economy that are not considered to be "fun". However, some people do interact with virtual economies for "real" economic benefit.

<i>Second Life</i> Online virtual world

Second Life is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Francisco–based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003, it saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017 the active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual world</span> Large-scale, interactive computer-simulated environment

A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. Virtual worlds are closely related to mirror worlds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avatar (computing)</span> Graphical representation of a user or a users alter ego or character

In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user or the user's character or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons. Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games, or an imaginary character with no graphical appearance, as in text-based games or worlds such as MUDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Rosedale</span> American entrepreneur (born 1968)

Philip Rosedale is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world Second Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linden Lab</span> American technology company

Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the developer of Second Life.

The Multiverse Network, Inc. was an American startup company creating a network and platform for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse's stated aim was to lower the barrier of entry for development teams by providing a low-cost software platform for online game and virtual world development.

The virtual world Second Life has its own economy and a virtual token referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). In the SL economy, users buy from and sell to one another directly, using the Linden, which is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the Second Life platform. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. However, the presence of a currency exchange has led to the Linden Dollar being recognised as a centralized virtual currency, a fiat currency, or property. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a Second Life business or experiential play can offer to exchange with other users via the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab. This economy is independent of the price of the game, which users pay to Linden Lab, not to each other. Linden Lab reports that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and in September 2006 Second Life was reported to have a GDP of US$64,000,000.

In the virtual world of Second Life, there are a number of in-world business and user-groups founded specifically for the game, some of which have become legal entities in their own right, as well as preexisting companies and organizations that have involved themselves in the world.

Alyssa LaRoche is the owner of Aimee Weber Studio Inc., and the person in control of the Second Life Resident Aimee Weber, for which her company is named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IMVU</span> Online 3D social platform

IMVU is an online virtual world and social networking site. IMVU was founded in 2004 and was originally backed by venture investors Menlo Ventures, AllegisCyber Capital, Bridgescale Partners, and Best Buy Capital. IMVU members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games. In 2014, IMVU had approximately six million active players, and had the largest virtual goods catalog of more than 6 million items as of 2011. The business was previously located in Mountain View, California. It was known as one of the leading practitioners of the lean startup approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Stock Exchange</span>

The World Stock Exchange (WSE) was a virtual stock exchange created Hope Capital Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia and managed by CEO, Luke Connell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivox</span> Telecommunications and entertainment software company

Vivox Inc. is an American communications company that manages communication services in the form of integrated voice chat, Instant Messaging (IM) to online games, virtual worlds and other online communities. It is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Avatars United was a web community for avatars of online games and virtual worlds. It was launched in March 2008 by Sweden-based Enemy Unknown and closed in October 2010. It was owned by Linden Lab, which announced its closure on September 23, 2010.

The Patriotic Nigras were a group of griefers in the online world of Second Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Ondrejka</span>

Cory Ondrejka was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. With Philip Rosedale, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka became Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy for the EMI Group until he left EMI in September 2009. He also was vice president of engineering at Facebook.

<i>Twinity</i> 2008 video game

Twinity is a 3D online virtual world. Initially developed by Metaversum GmbH, it is currently held by ExitReality. The game offers its population, called Twinizens, to navigate around virtual (historical) versions of real-world cities, also called a mirror world or a Metaverse. A public beta began in September 2008, with the release of the first virtual city, Berlin, which later was followed by Singapore, London, Miami and New York. Twinity is built on BigWorld Technology and its economy is based on a free-to-play model.

Richard P. Minsky is an American scholar of bookbinding and a book artist. He is the founder of the Center for Book Arts in New York City.

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Sinespace is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online Unity 3D-based platform created and published by Sine Wave Entertainment. It enables users to create and sell 3D content and interact with others as 3D avatars. It was beta launched in November 2016 and teamed up with Unity to make its SDK available in the Unity Asset Store in March 2019. It supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, but is also accessible through PC, Mac, Linux, and Chrome web browsers.

References

  1. ↑ Sloan, Paul (December 1, 2005). "The Virtual Rockefeller". CNN. Archived from the original on December 12, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  2. ↑ "My Virtual Life". Business Week. May 1, 2006. Archived from the original on January 5, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  3. 1 2 Parloff, Roger (November 28, 2005). "FROM MEGS TO RICHES". CNN. Archived from the original on January 4, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Press Kit – Anshe Chung". Anshe Chung Studios. November 27, 2006. Archived from the original on January 5, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  5. ↑ "Economy". Linden Lab. Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  6. ↑ "LindeX Market Data". Linden Lab. Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  7. ↑ The Herald Profile: Anshe Chung Walker Spaight, The Second Life Herald, 2005-01-25. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  8. ↑ "Anshe's kinky past revealed". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. January 17, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2007.
  9. ↑ Diaz, Cristiano (aka Cristiano Midnight) (November 28, 2004). "Introducing The Chat History Interview – Anshe Chung". SL Universe. Archived from the original on December 31, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  10. ↑ Why Anshe Chung is a Millionaire Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ "The Virtual Rockefeller". CNN. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  12. ↑ Virtual goods, real income Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  13. 1 2 "Anshe Chung Becomes First Virtual World Millionaire". Anshe Chung Studios. November 26, 2006. Archived from the original on January 7, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  14. ↑ Samwer Brothers Take 10% Stake in Anshe Chung Studios Archived March 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ GmbH, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "Echtes Geld fuer die Virtuelle Welt". FAZ.NET. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Second Life Marketplace". marketplace.secondlife.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Linden Lab Acquires Virtual E-Commerce Sites XStreetSL and OnRez: The Numbers, Strategy, and Controversy". New World Notes. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Sims from Anshe Chung for 6799 L$/week!". AnsheX. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Frenzoo - 3D Mobile Games For The World". Frenzoo - 3D Mobile Games For The World. Archived from the original on June 2, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  20. ↑ "AVENUE Magazine SLCC 2009". Issuu. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  21. ↑ 3DAvatarSchool.com [ permanent dead link ]
  22. ↑ "Jvwresearch.org". jvwresearch.org. Archived from the original on November 17, 2018. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  23. ↑ "2012 Top 100 Global Winners". Red Herring. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  24. ↑ "Play.google.com". google.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Create an online store for your digital products". sellfy.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Beyond Games". Beyond Games. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  27. ↑ Makibox.com Archived February 7, 2014, at archive.today
  28. ↑ "IMVUCE.com". Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  29. ↑ "Anshe Chung Portfolio". anshechung.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  30. ↑ "Crowfall - Throne War PC MMO by ArtCraft Entertainment, Inc". crowfall.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  31. ↑ "Angel.co". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  32. ↑ Terdiman, Daniel (December 20, 2006). "Virtual magnate shares secrets of success". CNET . Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  33. ↑ Hutcheon, Stephen (May 21, 2008). "Kremlin critic gets genital reminder about who's in charge". The Age. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
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