Should companies and organisations invest into SL?
In 1999, Thomas Jung, a german pharmacist, said that “The Internet will never replace a pharmacy”. One year later, in 2000, the first “big” online pharmacy, DocMorris, was born. Through the years, online pharmacies became very popular because of their low prices, no fixed opening hours and the fact that you don’t have to leave your house to buy your medication. In the beginnings of Second Life, many people said the same thing about investing into Second Life. Nowadays, the Internet is the best and biggest place for advertising and a perfect platform to reach a greater or even new target group which they probably wouldn’t reach in the “real world”. Moreover, it’s an interactive world where the customers can test the products and bring their own ideas into the design and manufacturing process. Consequently, companies and organisations should invest into Second Life in order to enter a new market and attract new customers. If they don’t, they will probably lose their market shares to companies which invested into Second Life. Like the pharmacies which didn’t invest into an own online presence.