In Survey, New World Notes Readers Predict Slow Growth of Second Life Enterprise

Here's the results of a survey I conducted a couple weeks ago, on the potential market for Second Life Enterprise, the Lindens' new "behind the firewall" solution. There are 14 clients for it now, and 60% of readers said that number will double, stay the same, or retract. Given that there are more than 1400 real world organizations in Second Life proper now, I think it's fair to characterize that as "slow" growth. For the record, I go along with the majority in this case -- I'm skeptical there's a growing demand for enterprise-based virtual worlds, especially at the $50K price the Lindens are charging, and believe we won't see significant growth until Second Life itself shows strong mass market adoption. Corporations and large organizations are much likelier to experiment with SL-based enterprise use when their clients, executives, and employees already have an existing facility (and passion) for the consumer version. What's your take?

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Alternate spin; 64% of respondants think participation will double, triple or more.

I voted for 50 or more. As I said in the poll thread, this isn't because I think it's a good product or fulfills any real enterprise need; it's just that even in the current economic climate you can round up that many executive-class suckers with more capital than brains.

[BumbleParx in SL]

I voted for double but it was a bit of a guestimate. At the price point and priority virtual worlds currently have, I don't see many businesses going straight to the enterprise product. Not when they can get a couple of people to experiment for a much lower cost before making a decision. Maybe government-funded companies with spare budget will jump straight for it (I can think of one at least) but they are getting fewer these days. That leaves the majority of growth coming from businesses who already have an in-world presence and decide to move it inside their firewall. That's only necessary for those who don't want any data stored on Linden's public servers. So instead you use their private ones?

What % of the businesses in-world today have an investment of over $50K per annum (14 full sims) and a specific need to move behind a firewall? That's where the growth will come from and I'm guessing it won't be a lot. I think the solution will need to evolve a fair bit before it becomes attractive to a wider audience and I'd rather see focus on making SL as a whole more mainstream.