Media investors are betting that the services surrounding virtual worlds like Second Life may be as profitable as companies such as Linden Lab that run the worlds themselves. At least one other metaverse services firm will announce a major investment within the next month, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Wuhan, China-based Anshe Chung Studios, whose eponymous founder claims to have accumulated more than US$1 million worth of Second Life assets, has branched out to other virtual worlds including IMVU, There.com and Entropia.
“Our business is based more and more on people and talent and less and less on a certain platform,” said Guni Greenstein (Guni Graef in the real world), who is the husband and business partner of Anshe Chung (Ailin Graef) in a Second Life interview.