Second Life Future Salon: SLBoutique's Growth Curve and Selling Real Things for "Virtual" Currency

Update: first real item goes live

The final event of last Saturday's Democracy Island opening was a discussion of Second Life's ongoing integration with the World Wide Web. To show how serious this is, SLBoutique founder FlipperPA Peregrine released some impressive transaction data for his year-old Second Life e-commerce site (slides below), which is like a budding Amazon for things created in Second Life...though now maybe not just in. He also announced that SLBoutique will start selling real items for virtual currency (a first anywhere, as far as I know) saying:

FlipperPA Peregrine: "Something we're going to be introducing this year partially to take advantage of the ease in spending "monopoly money" and partly to try to prove a point is sales of RL [real life] items for L$ on SLBoutique. Why restrict sales to SL items? The great thing about eBay is that one person's trash is another person's gold. By having L$ often viewed as "play money", I think this will help really point out the value of the L$, and the strength of the integration between the web and SL for these kinds of things. If you're in the UK, you can still buy from US web shops easily through a credit card or PayPal :-) Imagine spending L$ for a new nVidia card - or someone's "old" system, that might be just a tier below the new top of the line! These are the things we're going to be exploring over the next year with SLBoutique."

Below are the slides with growth of transactions and number Linden dollars spent per month (note: approx. L250 = US$1). Second Life's currency exchange, LindeX, can be found here. Read on below the fold for Flip's unedited transcript.

You: mr flip the floor is yours
FlipperPA Peregrine: Thanks folks!
Gwyneth Llewelyn: ;)
FlipperPA Peregrine: Good to be hear, and thanks to everyone for putting this together.
FlipperPA Peregrine: I wanted to talk a bit about economy and Commerce.
FlipperPA Peregrine: As you all know I've run SLBoutique for the past year
FlipperPA Peregrine: We launched almost exactly a year ago
Jade Lily: happy birthday :)
FlipperPA Peregrine: I've learned a lot of lessons about interaction in that time, and I've done several other projects as well... FreeView with SLGuide, the events creators, the web ---> SL chat interface for the Relay for Life
FlipperPA Peregrine: I'm going to share with you some numbers I've never made public before
Gwyneth Llewelyn: oooh
FlipperPA Peregrine: Here's a list of our transactions per month
Jade Lily: lol
FlipperPA Peregrine: a transaction being a sale or a deposit
FlipperPA Peregrine: As you can see - in January, we barely charted
FlipperPA Peregrine: 37 transactions, total :-)
Jade Lily: hehe
Dirk DaSilva: can you correlate that with population growth?
FlipperPA Peregrine: I've witnessed, quite literally, the transformation from many viewing SL as a game to a platform
Jade Lily: good question, dirk
FlipperPA Peregrine: (1) SLBoutique was the new kid on the block last January
FlipperPA Peregrine: Dirk: Indeed, I could. But its wouldn't be direct, for these reasons...
FlipperPA Peregrine: (2) It takes a leap of faith for people to click something on the web and be assured it will be delivered in-world
FlipperPA Peregrine: Its something that's never been seen before
FlipperPA Peregrine: Kind of like getting someone to make their first purchase on the web - we had to have a similar leap of faith for people to make their first purchase
Jade Lily: october was during fund raising for katrina?
FlipperPA Peregrine: Please stop clicking the sign :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: The fundraising for Katrina barely charted, as most people donated through gift boxes rather than on the site :-)
Jade Lily: ah
FlipperPA Peregrine: As you can see, over the past year, people are becoming more and more comfortable with purchasing online
FlipperPA Peregrine: I suspect SLExchange has had reasonable growth as well :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: The cool thing about HTML on prim for us - once its interactive - is that people can set up a "1 prim vendor" basically, and have a central location (SLBoutique) to update all their items
FlipperPA Peregrine: Then they'll also have a central reporting station.
FlipperPA Peregrine: Now, the next thing I'd like to get into...
FlipperPA Peregrine: Is that I think people are starting to think of L$ much more as a foreign currency than monopoly money.
FlipperPA Peregrine: However, there's still a monopoly money aspect to even US$ online.
Jade Lily: heh heh
FlipperPA Peregrine: Just ask my coworker who's lost $10000 in the past week on PartyPoker.com
Jade Lily: good god
FlipperPA Peregrine: *ouch*
Hiro Pendragon: Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!111
Clint Turner: muaha
FlipperPA Peregrine: By viewing it as a foreign currency...
Gwyneth Llewelyn: !!
FlipperPA Peregrine: We legitimise it as a market. I think this is another reason that Philip continues to refer to SL as a country with a GNP/GDP
FlipperPA Peregrine: Something we're going to be introducing this year...
FlipFlappy Gjellerup: great point
FlipperPA Peregrine: ...partially to take advantage of the ease in spending "monopoly money"...
FlipperPA Peregrine: ...and partly to try to prove a point...
FlipperPA Peregrine: Is sales of RL items for L$ on SLBoutique.
You: !
FlipperPA Peregrine: Why restrict sales to SL items?
FlipperPA Peregrine: The great thing about eBay is that one person's trash is another person's gold.
FlipperPA Peregrine: By having L$ often viewed as "play money", I think this will help really point out the value of the L$, and the strength of the integration between the web and SL for these kinds of things.
FlipperPA Peregrine: IF you're in the UK, you can still buy from US web shops easily through a credit card or PayPal :-)
Haney Heaney: yeek!
FlipperPA Peregrine: Imagine spending L$ for a new nVidia card - or someone's "old" system, that might be just a tier below the new top of the line!
FlipperPA Peregrine: These are the things we're going to be exploring over the next year with SLBoutique.
Dirk DaSilva: So L$ for micropayments?
Dear Leader: they aren't so micro
FlipperPA Peregrine: We're trying to blur the lines between the 2D web and the 3D web - as well as RL and SL :-)
Barbarra Blair wonders when we'll here from the Treasury department of the U.S.
FlipperPA Peregrine: Dirk: They probably won't be micro.
FlipperPA Peregrine: Dirk: That's something we're exploring as well :-)
Dirk DaSilva: then why not use $US
Dirk DaSilva: :)
Dirk DaSilva: ah!
FlipperPA Peregrine: We're treating L$ as one type of currency, our preferred one, as it can be exchanged with minimal costs
Astrin Few: a currency can have more value when used to trade withint that currency, like "community dollars" in many progressive RL communities
FlipperPA Peregrine: Its easy enough to add another currency with the way I've coded the system :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: Exactly, Astrin :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: I can now open the floor to Q&A - if anyone has any specific questions, feel free to contact me as well :-)
You: wowzers, thanks flip
FlipperPA Peregrine: The linking of SL to the outside world has certainly opened up all kinds of possibilities - I love to tinker with them :-)
Hiro Pendragon: Thanks, flip!
Dirk DaSilva: Congratulations on the success, Flip
Kitten Lulu: Anyone knows the timeframe for the SL Web browser?
You: my jaw's dropped
Gwyneth Llewelyn: 3 months, according to Cory, Kitten :)
FlipperPA Peregrine: hehehehe, thanks, December was the first month we were "in the black" with server costs and all :-)
You: kitten's question first
Dear Leader: Flipper do you plan on having slboutique.com terminals everywhere in world when there is HTML on a prim, how, and will the visibility of those lower prices let's say affect the market significantly? like the SWG example cited on Terra Nova
FlipperPA Peregrine: Now to re-coup the investment :-)
You: 3 months until what form?
Satchmo Prototype: Flip I was wondering if you had any plans to open up any API's for slboutique. Perhaps let people pull down there listings or users to create 3rd party apps that take advantage of slboutique listings?
Gwyneth Llewelyn: (3 months for HTML-on-a-prim, SNOOPY)
You: purely viewing the web
Gwyneth Llewelyn *nods*
FlipperPA Peregrine: Dear: We're mainly planning on leaving that up to our sellers, to be honest. We already have code ready so a seller can drop a script in a prim and it will make that prim only their items, with no SLBoutique interface
FlipperPA Peregrine: DeaR: We're also working on tools to allow them to customize their pages, color / graphic wise
Hiro Pendragon: May I add to that, Flip?
FlipperPA Peregrine: So they'll be able to mathc
FlipperPA Peregrine: match their look/style
FlipperPA Peregrine: Hiro: Sure :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: Satchmo: RSS feeds are on the radar, yes :-) We intend to open up our search, listens, and eventually have real-time statistics. I promised when I started SLBoutique I'd make our stats as public as possible :-) I intend to keep that promise as well.
Hiro Pendragon: Sort of how I see this going with mall sites is that users will have their own look for stores, and really just the vendor application will be flavored with SLB / SS / SLEX / another server
Hiro Pendragon: So rather than a wall full of vendors,
Hiro Pendragon: Each item may just be a selector, telling the main vendor which one to add to a shopping cart
Hiro Pendragon: gee, sort of like how WWW sites do commerce.
Hiro Pendragon: Reverse compatibility. I think if we look to existing sites we can predict where SL is going
FlipperPA Peregrine: hehehehe, good point Hiro, its important to learn the lessons we've learned from the 2D web :-)
Hiro Pendragon: Less vendors = less lag, less maintenance
You: here's a common addage in tech forecasting:
Gwyneth Llewelyn: Indeed, we have no excuse nowadays to commit the same errors as ten years ago...
Hiro Pendragon: (anyone on the floor should feel free to talk until Snoop calls for another question)
You: we over-predict in the short-term and waay under-predict in the long
You: thinking about that, what's 2006 look like...really :)
You: what are we doing next december 31st
Hiro Pendragon: I for one am upgrading my free vendor kit.
You: not 2008
Hiro Pendragon: It will have api so users can tailor it to whatever sales site they want
You: and how do you plan along the way?
Clint Turner: we shoulda been in flying cars in 2000
You: not re-invent the wheel?
Kitten Lulu: SL is full of interesting data that would be useful to outside services (read websites) to integrate with. Think about group membership, land data, etc. DO you know if there are LL plans to build bridges to them?
Hiro Pendragon: lol clint
Rocks Diamond: /timer 60
Rocks Diamond: goodbye.
You: that's the biggest question for dem isl
Dear Leader: Kitten: Rathe Underthorn already made a site that has all his real estate for sale linked to SL
You: how to get at those programs that already do things so well
FlipperPA Peregrine: Kitten - there are a few sites that mine a lot of interesting data already - I believe Ezhar runs one with lots of interesting stats :-)
You: but reach them here
Hiro Pendragon: Kitten, excellent question
Hiro Pendragon: I think we should stop relying on LL to solve social problems.
Kitten Lulu: The problem is if I am building my own website (hehe) going to be integrated with SL, I'd like not to reinvent the wheel and have fresh data out of SL directly
Gwyneth Llewelyn: hear, hear, Hiro!
FlipperPA Peregrine: SNOOPY: I've developed web-apps exclusively for my clients for years - Gwyneth is quite correct that the browser has been great that way. SL is smart to allow integration with these web apps, because now, basically any database can be linked to SL with..
FlipperPA Peregrine: ...enough creativity :-)
Hiro Pendragon: SL is just another way to display data
Hiro Pendragon: You can display things already existing on the WW ... in 3-D in SL
Hiro Pendragon: WWW
Gwyneth Llewelyn *nods*
Hiro Pendragon: So if things are already on the WWW porting to SL...
Clint Turner: isn't intel comming out with universal 3d standard
Hiro Pendragon: where does LL come into the equation?
Hiro Pendragon: Well, simple... they don't.
FlipperPA Peregrine: hehehe, I wouldn't trust Intel with anything graphic-wise
Clint Turner: heh
FlipperPA Peregrine: I enter into evidence as exhibit A the INTEL EXTREME CHIPSET ;-)
Hiro Pendragon: lol
Gwyneth Llewelyn: standards: the best part of having so many, is that you can pick whatever you like.
FlipperPA Peregrine: One thing I would like to see, Kitten (excellent question): LL should provide RSS feeds with appropriate data
FlipperPA Peregrine: Like ability to search user info
You: let's get another question
You: shout 'em out
FlipperPA Peregrine: Then people can create web site with our own searches; our own events lists; our own classifieds; our own shopping
FlipperPA Peregrine: Basically, replace find with a browser, and give the user to ability to select what appears on their find page :-)
Kitten Lulu: yes
Nethermind Bliss: amen, brother, preach!
Nethermind Bliss: lol
Kitten Lulu: events list is my main focus at the moment, I hate the spam
FlipperPA Peregrine: That would solve problems like the current events list...
FlipperPA Peregrine: I've got the current experiment going of the alternate events list at SLBoutique, but until it picks up more steam....
Nethermind Bliss: (cough)
FlipperPA Peregrine: :-)
Nethermind Bliss: I think it's a great idea, since I don't access the regular events list anymore :)
FlipFlappy Gjellerup: well were usin it =) thanks flip
Zachariah Christensen: do you think this will this have any bearing on the xmlrpc limits?
FlipperPA Peregrine: hehehe, sure :-)
Dirk DaSilva: There is an events list?
Dirk DaSilva: ;)
FlipperPA Peregrine: Gawd, don't get me started on the crippling XML-RPC limits :-)
Gwyneth Llewelyn *shakes head*
FlipperPA Peregrine: I think its clear LL needs to restrict certain functions (grid crashes are a bitch)
FlipperPA Peregrine: But you should be able to come up with an application process
FlipperPA Peregrine: So that anyone can apply for ability to use certain features without limits, but with a more professional contract with LL
Barbarra Blair remembers what happened with GOM and LINDEX and wonders if Linden Labs will let others soak up the profits
Zachariah Christensen: i like that idea. a bit like the API key you already need from flickr, etc.
FlipperPA Peregrine: Exactly, Zach :-)
FlipperPA Peregrine: Currently, you can only ship 255 characters via XML-RPC - its frustrating!
FlipperPA Peregrine: Not to mention the delays after function calls.
Hiro Pendragon: Barbarra, I think what you will find is something cooler -