Presentation given at the workshop on 3D Internet in EU and China in Beijing in March 2009. It covers various examples of 2D & 3D virtual worlds, social networks as well as some interesting legal issues, to conclude with more abstract ideas about the "digital third place"
1. EU-China Information Society Project
Virtual Worlds in Asia
Trends and Expectations
Shaping and Governing the 3-D Internet
Benjamin Joffe, CEO | Plus Eight Star | Beijing, 2009.03
9. I am going to talk about
1. What is a virtual world
2. What are their origins
3. What’s the market situation
4. What are the trends
5. What are the legal challenges
6. More complexities
7. The digital third place
for 60 minutes
57. Service Registered users Revenue 2008 (E) Valuation (E)
Habbo 100 mln 50 mln USD 1.25 bln USD
Gaia Online 7 mln UV/month 10 mln USD n.a.
Stardoll 20 mln 30 mln USD 450 mln USD
Club Penguin 12 mln 50-150 mln USD 350-700 mln USD
63. Service Registered users Revenue 2008 (E) Valuation (E)
Cyworld 22 mln 200 mln USD n.a.
Mobile Game Town 12.6 mln 250 mln USD 1.4 billion USD
Gree 8 mln 60 mln USD 1.2 billion USD
Nicotto Town 100,000 n.a. n.a.
115. Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS)
• “We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to
change, modify, add, or delete portions of these
Terms of Use at any time without further notice.”
• Chronology of the TOS-gate
– 2009.02.15 | Change in TOS – Facebook can do
whatever it wants with the content
– 2009.02.15 | Users uproar
– 2009.02.17 | Back to old TOS
– 2009.02.26 | Opens its TOS for input from users
123. If the effort it takes to file
repeated claims is greater
than the effort to create an
account and repost a video,
then certainly something is
flawed.
124. My expectation would be
that Linden Lab swiftly
research that problem and
close that loophole.
Otherwise it would raise
questions about how ready
Second Life actually is for
professional use.
132. “Glider is a tool that plays your
World of Warcraft character
for you, the way you want it.
It grinds, it loots, it skins, it
heals, it even farms soul
shards... without you.”
133. Single Multiple Use of Shared
account accounts Bots account
167. There are more ideas
outside your country
than inside
Tom Kelley
CEO, IDEO
The 10 faces of Innovation
168. “Innovation Arbitrage”
• About us
– +8* | Plus Eight Star is the leading cross-market and cross-cultural consultancy in Asia.
– We provide local expertise & global perspective on mobile and Internet innovation from
China, Japan and South Korea to add value to and accelerate the development of our
clients’ businesses.
• Our services
– Analysis of proven best practices and business models from Asia
– Other services: executive study trips, market entry strategy, M&A advisory, partners
identification, negotiation support.
• Founder & CEO: Benjamin Joffe
– 9 years experience with mobile & Internet in Asia
– Selected among “China’s Top 100 mobile industry influencers” in 2007
– Regular speaker at events on mobile and Internet in Asia
– Fluent in English, Japanese, French with working knowledge of Mandarin, Korean and
Spanish
169. Selected References
• Adidas | E-commerce strategy for China, Japan & Korea
• Bouygues Telecom | Cases studies of leading Asian Web 2.0 services
and virtual worlds
• Deutsche Telekom / T-Online | Benchmark of Korean mobile & Internet
convergence strategies
• Hemisphere | Analysis of mobile marketing best practices in Japan and
South Korea (Hemisphere is a leading digital advertising agency),
analysis of leading social platforms (SNS, virtual worlds, online games).
• Microsoft | Analysis of Japan’s key players and market catalysts for
mobile commerce market positioning in China
• DeNA | Case studies of the best practices of leading social networks in
China and South Korea (DeNA operates Mobile Game Town, Japan’s
leading mobile SNS service)
• China Mobile | Benchmark of Korean leading online communities
• Sands Capital Management | Evaluation of China’s investment
opportunities in social networks in China
170. Social Contribution
• Mobile Monday
– Founder of the Mobile Monday forum in Beijing since 2006 (3,000+
members, 23 events, over 80 presentations).
• Media
– Monthly column on Asian innovation for Asian Business Leaders (one of
the leading Chinese business magazines), numerous interviews in
international media.
• Events
– Regular keynote speaker and moderator at Internet, Telecom, Media and
Investment events
e.g. eComm, ITU Asia, Asia Venture Capital Forum, China Mobility International
Summit, O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns, Red Herring Asia, Media 08
Conference, Wireless Developer Forum, Open Web Asia, XMediaLab, Mobile
Monday Global Summit, etc.
171. Contact Us
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
+81 | Japan
benjamin0123 +82 | Korea
+86 | China
http://twitter.com/plus8star
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe
+ Added Value
www.slideshare.net/plus8star * High quality