The Future of Social Networking According to Second Life and Habbo Hotel

Authored by Jay Baage on December 21, 2006 - 11:36am.

Social networking has been one of the hottest areas of interest since Web 2.0 took off as a concept and media buzzword. In one of the most high profile media deals of 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought MySpace for $580 million, a staggering amount at the time. This year, viral video has become the latest hot category with the defining Internet deal of 2006 being the sale of YouTube to Google for $1.76 billion, when the startup was less than 2-years old. So what is ahead in social networking in 2007? One of the hottest areas will most certainly be Virtual Worlds and Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs or MMOs).

Virtual worlds are still in their infancies, but the possibilities that are emerging in this new medium are astonishing. But there are also challenges, from common technical performance issues to more uncommon cases of, for example, virtual crime. Monetary issues can give virtual worlds perplexing problems similar to the real world.

Perhaps a sign of what to come can be found in South Korea, where some have reported the emergence of virtual gangs and mafias that threaten beginners to give money for their "protection", and actually steal and rob from the virtual community.

Digital Media Wire caught up with two executives from two of the most successful companies in this category, Philip Rosendale of Linden Lab’s Second Life and Teemu Huuhtanen of Sulake Corporation’s Habbo Hotel. We asked both five questions each about what the future holds for their companies in specific, and digital media in general.

Here are links to the respective interviews:
• Five Questions with Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of Linden Lab, Creator of Second Life

• Five Questions with Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America, Sulake, Creator of Habbo Hotel

Related Poll:
Which Area of Digital Media will get the most attention In 2007?

Joakim Baage

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popular technology

Submitted by airport-hotel (not verified) on June 26, 2009 - 7:49am.

The popular technology used by millions of people to share ideas and photos on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others is catching on at companies to improve productivity and communication among workers.