When Retail Goes Virtual

by on 19 November, 2007 - 17:48

I caught a whiff of this piece on the Guardian earlier this month, and
having finally read it, all I can say is, thank the Flying Spaghetti
Monster someone else is starting to talk about the impact virtual
worlds will almost certainly have on real world commerce. Victor Keegan
has fired a nice warning flare in his article, “Virtual China looks for real benefits” (Link). From the piece:

"Anyone who still thinks that virtual worlds such as Mind
Ark’s Entropia Universe or Second Life are the plaything of geeks
should look at what is happening in China. It is simply mind-boggling
and, if it all comes off, has awesome implications for western
economies.
…
China is converting a 100 sq km site (yes, that is a very big space) on
the former nationalised steel mill site to house, among other things,
virtual worlds able to support not millions or tens of millions but
billions of avatars.
…
When I asked Professor Lai to explain what this was all about, he
touched his shirt. This, he said, cost $1 when it left China but he
noticed, walking around the shops, that it would retail at $20 over
here. This project is about staking a claim to that value added. And
not just in shirts. A western avatar wandering around one of these
virtual worlds could almost as easily be ordering a car built to his
specification for delivery in the UK. Goods that were made in China
could have web addresses to take western buyers direct to a Chinese
website for further purchases or replacements.
…
If it were anyone but China planning this you would take it with a
pinch of salt. But this is not the NHS, it is the world’s biggest
manufacturing country pitching to lead the next stage of development as
the internet moves into three dimensions. When I asked the professor
whether the coming of virtual worlds would be on a scale commensurate
with the industrial revolution, he replied: “It will be faster, bigger,
more like an explosion.”

Gareth Powell writes in his article for the China Economic Review (Link):

"This
is seriously important and may change the way the world shops. It could
have a devastating effect on shops in the high street and could mean
true global trading on an individual scale. A true revolution.
.
If you understand the concept of Second Life – a separate virtual world
this will be easy to follow. A similar set up is being set up by the
Beijing municipality is getting in on the act with a site which you
might think of as Second Life meets Alibaba."

Can you hear me now?

-

For reference, here are just a few earlier posts which are relevant to this topic:

Smiley Face Savvy (reLink)
Shorting the Factory Future (reLink)
The Big Shift Is Coming (reLink)
True Reverse Product Placement (reLink)
NY Times On Virtual Retail (reLink)

There are more entries, of course, but those should get new readers started.

Original post: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1406