Business
From Second Life Wiki
Second Life has a lot of business opportunities. Residents can earn money in many ways, including employment as various professions/jobs (dancer, DJ, etc), opening a store/vendor (separate or in a market with others), buying/selling land, scripting, building, etc.
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Business ventures
Because of the ability to exchange Linden Dollars for real world currencies, and vice versa, some 60,000+ users of SL earn "positive Linden flow", i.e. the money they make in their activities in SL exceeds their cost of playing so that they earn some amount of money converted to USD to their paypal or bank accounts. There are thousands of individuals who earn a significant percentage of, or all of their real life income via SL based businesses, some earning in excess of $2000 to over $5,000 per month. There is a wide range of businesses operating in SL, such as:
Land Barons
Because individuals can own virtual land in SL, there naturally has arisen a brisk and large business in virtual real estate, from land sales and rentals on mainland sims controlled directly by Linden Lab, the owner of SL, to land sales and rentals in private "estate" sims that estate owners lease from Linden lab which they hold "estate powers" over (slightly less powerful than the God mode of Linden Lab employees). SL Land Baroness Anshe Chung appeared on the covers of several real world news and business magazines when her inworld assets reached a self proclaimed value of $1 million, with over 500 simulators under her control.
Builders
If you can imagine building anything, you can do it in SL.
Animation
Avatars need animations and poses to look realistic doing or using just about any content: dances, weapons, combat, sports, vehicle operation, even simulated sex. Animators using Poser or Avimator or even motion capture suits upload data to create all the animations an avatar needs. High quality animations can be worth a lot of money. One notable example, Stroker Serpentine, inventor of the 'sexgen' bed, which rezzes poseballs to animate avatars for simulated sex, earns in excess of six figures a year with his furniture using his custom motion captured animations.
Scripting
Making anything work in SL requires use of the LSL scripting language, and like in RL, LSL programmers can earn good money doing so. Notable scripters include Redux Dengaku, Nexii Malthus, Zwagoth Klaar, Ford Edelman, among others.
Textures
No build can look good without high quality textures. Many individuals create their own textures, but there are also significant texture selling businesses like 3D Creations (official licensee of Marlin Studios textures in SL), Textures R Us, among others. Controversy arose in 2008 when 3D Creations owner Vryl Valkyrie obtained Marlin Studios license and sought repeated DMCA complaints against Textures R Us owner Lillibeth Filth, who had violated Marlin copyrights on thousands of textures.
Casinos
The casino market was once as large as the land business, but in August 2007, Linden Lab banned games of chance and betting on real life events, resulting in a drastic contraction of the SL economy that reverberated in other industries for months. Today, some casinos have returned strictly with 'skill based' games approved by Linden Lab.
Banking
The financial markets in SL have been one of the most drama filled and controversial. In 2005, Ginko Financial Bank was founded and quickly grew to become not only the first, but the largest virtual bank in SL. Many other banks soon followed, often offering interest rates to depositors that many real life economists thought extraordinary, but was seen by residents to reflect the high economic growth rates typical of the SL economy. Following the gambling ban of 2007, Ginko Bank collapsed in a bank run triggered by casino owners fleeing SL. Ginko's L$200 million in deposit liabilities equalled approximately US$ 750,000.00, constituting the largest business failure in SL history. Within months, other smaller banks suffered similar collapses as panicking depositors sought to recover what remaining funds they had as the end of the gambling market caused collapses in land prices, scripting, building, and many other industries. Finally in January of 2008, Linden Lab, tired of complaints of lawsuits from angry depositors, banned any inworld group from offering interest on cash deposits without a real world banking license. The fact that real world banks are not legally permitted to handle L$ remained a point of debate over the legitimacy of such a rule.
Capital Markets
In December 2007, the World Stock Exchange was formed by Lukeconnell Vandeverre and the building built by Land Baron IntLibber Brautigan. In February, the exchange closed temporarily due to programming problems and completely recoded the exchange. Reopening in Brautigan's sim of Friedman, the WSE began the golden age of finance in SL, helping to capitalize over 40 businesses with the equivalent of over $ 2 million USD in capital. When the WSE moved out of Friedman, Brautigan delisted his business, Brautigan & Tuck Holdings from WSE and relisted it with a new competitor, AVIX Exchange, which took WSE's place in Friedman. Two other exchanges quickly opened: International Stock Exchange and Virtual Stock Exchange (VSTEX). Within two months, however, AVIX was purchased by JT Financial Bank owner Arbitrage Wise, who rebranded it the SL Capital Exchange and moved it out of Friedman to his own sim of JT World. Brautigan then opened his own exchange, the Ancapistan Capital Exchange, headquartered in Friedman and Venture Square. Since that time, the WSE, mired in scandals, left SL and now functions as a dubious game of questionable legality on Facebook. SL Capex was sold to Scott Nestler when JT Financial collapsed in January 2007 with the interest ban, leaving Arbitrage Wise over $300,000 in debt to his depositors. The capital markets have begun to mature and mellow with age, although overall market volumes are nowhere near the L$3-6 million daily trading volumes of the early WSE period, however this is more likely due to the current real world economic conditions.
Strip Clubs and Escorts
Strip clubs and escorting are lucrative businesses in SL, as "pixel sex" remains a major industry in the virtual world as it is on the internet and phone networks.
Media
There is a wide range of media opportunities in SL, from virtual newspapers and magazines, either as inworld objects or web-blogs focused on SL news, to machinima in the form of movies or tv-format entertainment, as well as radio stations and DJ operations.
Fashion
Anything a person in RL needs to wear, so to does an Avatar need, and so the fashion business is huge in SL, from shapes and skins to clothing, shoes, and other accessories.
