The buzz around the growth of virtual world site, Second Life, is drawing more scrutiny from real-world regulators who fear they’re losing grip with the growing economy.
The site appears to have hit a sort of critical mass — and the attention is fueling even more activity.
A U.S. congressional committee has launched an investigation of the site, to see that people pay taxes properly on income they make at the site. Outsiders are scratching their heads at reports that several thousand people are pulling in $20,000 annual incomes by selling virtual goods and services, and saying “How can I get a piece of this?” Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai has been pitching Second Life founder, Philip Rosedale, on the idea of creating a central bank, which Tai would — benevolently, of course — run himself. Rosedale has held him off.
And now there’s a marketing start-up, Crayon, which says its launch Thursday will be the first real business to launch inside of the site.
Up to $500,000 in transactions take place daily at Second Life, and the economy is growing by 10 to 15 percent a month.
7 Comments
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zorochina said:
don’t forget all the virtual gambling that goes on in the game. the points you win can be exchanged for real dollars? why is that different than partygaming or any of the other offshore sites that the US just shut down?
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David Scott Lewis said:
Think eBay. If someone makes money in Second Life (SL), shouldn’t they be taxed just like somebody making money on eBay? I fail to see any differences. (Primarily) services versus (primarily) products? Sorry, still taxable.
The issue with SL isn’t potential taxation of commerce, but poor usability (among other things). A good user experience is woefully lacking, sans for “white and nerdy” types (as in the video).
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csven said:
“white and nerdy” types?
Interestingly enough, I’ve met a surprisingly diverse group of individuals in SL - many of them neither white nor nerdy. I’ve actually been most amazed at the numbers of people who use SL but are complete noobs to not just 3D videogames/virtual worlds, but to computers in general. I would not have expected it but that’s what I discovered. If a “good user experience” is an issue, I’ve not seen that to be a significant one in my almost two years using SL. Perhaps declarations such as David’s should be regarded as limited, since I doubt they’re based on any real statistical analysis that holds any relevance.
What’s surprising to me is a) that anyone actually believes inworld taxation makes sense for an international user base, and b) that “virtual” goods have worth considering the world is full of virtual goods… only they don’t have a visual association to tangible goods (is a concert ticket made of paper really worth $100? is a baseball hit by a professional athlete really worth an exponentially greater dollar amount than a fresh ball out of the package?). What do people think the stock market is but a game where people trade in virtual portions of companies and the future worth of products as yet unproduced. Are people so easily thrown off track by a meaningless association? Apparently.
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Rational Beaver said:
There are definitely going to be some interesting tax questions coming up in the near future. I think Congress cares less about people buying and selling virtual shoes and more about companies like Crayon that could easily conceal their revenues by simply not cashing them out of the game. Currently, people are taxed on their SL earnings when they convert them from virtual Lindon to real dollars. But what if your real-world corporation earns $5 million in the game and then, instead of cashing it out to be taxed, just spends it in the game… You could pay your employees in virtual money (thus avoiding the corporate double tax), or buy real world services from other businesses in the game with virtual money. That’s going to cause some problems.
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hunter walk said:
It’s too late - the accountants are already in SL :-)
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ryan1 said:
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
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Swiss Dude said:
Hey! Nice blog posting about the land of start-ups and no cops, yet. I would have to agree with you on this one. I am going to look more into offshore bank. This Saturday I have time.
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SecondLife와 ìƒí‘œ ì €ìž‘ê¶Œ « Bundle of Sticks said:
[...] SLì— íŽ¸ìŠ¹í•´ì„œ ìƒê²¨ë‚˜ëŠ” ë¹„ì¦ˆë‹ˆìŠ¤ë„ ë§Žë‹¤. Second Life’s “Wild West†— the land of start-ups and no cops, yet ì— ëª‡ 가지 회사가 소개ë˜ì–´ 있다. SecondLifeê°€ 기회는 ë§Žê³ ê·œì œìžëŠ” ì—†ë˜ Wild West와 ê°™ë‹¤ê³ í‘œí˜„í•˜ê³ ìžˆë‹¤. ì´ëŸ° 비즈니스를 소개해주는 온ë¼ì¸ 매거진 ë„ ìƒê²¼ë‹¤. [...]