The History of Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world in which people can create avatars for themselves and start building their own virtual image, career, relationships and business. Second Life was created by a company named Linden Lab, which was founded by Philip Rosedale in 1999. The company’s initial goal was to develop virtual world hardware. Then Rosedale directed the company into a direction focused more on virtual world software and online platforms. The first project involved people socializing in a three-dimensional online world. The next step was, of course, Second Life.

Second Life was released in 2003 and five years later, in 2008, residents already spent a total of 30 million hours in the in-world life. On average, in Second Life, approximately 40.000 users are logged in at any moment. 2008 was also the year when Rosedale stepped down as CEO of Linden Lab. His creation will receive an Emmy Award for technology and engineering accomplishments.

In November 2010, there were 22 million residents populating Second Life. The first resident to join the in-world was Steller Sunshine. At first, the world consisted of 16 different regions named after alleys in San Francisco. Of course, in the beginning, residents were not able to teleport, neither did they have any money. As shocking as that may seem today, when currency is the main attraction of the platform, the Linden dollar was introduced later, at the end of 2003. After currency was available, residents had to pay a weekly fee for living in the Second Life world.

Second Life began with a business plan that was focused on getting money from paid memberships. You could only enter the virtual world in exchange for money. Now, the model evolved into Premium and Basic accounts. When residents were able to acquire land in SL, the main business model of SL turned to land sales. Now, residents can develop their own entrepreneurial skills in the in-world of Second Life.

The History of Second Life

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