Marketeers abandon Second Wife

THE MARCHITECTURE MOB are starting to write off online virtual reality game Second Life because no one is visiting their shops.

The LA Times quotes Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts as saying that there is no reason to stay.

It is not the only company which has found its paid for sites empty. Best Buy's Geek Squad Island is empty of visitors and any of the virtual staff.

Sun's event schedule was blank and Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop, said the Times.

Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds pointed out that it was hard to set up a decent marketing plan in a place where "one of the most frequently purchased items is genitalia."

Another problem is that hardly anyone seems to go to Second Wife. Although the owner Linden Labs said that the total residents are more than eight million, that counts people who signed in once and never came back.

At peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research told the Times.

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