It looks like PayPal will no longer be the only option for international Second Life payments. As business for Linden Lab continues to stretch across the globe and multiple languages it is becoming increasingly more important to be flexible when accepting payments from international customers using different currencies and under different financial regulations.
In that spirit Linden Lab is working on a partnership with Gisland Dragonfish. Perhaps better known for taking online gambling payments, Gisland Dragonfish is experienced in taking multiple currencies and enforcing tighter fraud prevention measures as well as retaining customers.
Chief Executive Officer of Linden Lab Mark Kingdon stated: “Second Life Residents log into the virtual world from nearly every country around the globe and participate in a virtual economy that will exceed USD500 million this year. Dragonfish has a strong track record in unlocking new markets through its unique and secure payment processing solutions, and as Second Life continues to grow internationally, we’re pleased to work with them to provide easy and secure payment options for our users outside the United States.”
We wrote before that Liden Lab was looking for a new PR firm. It looks like Edelman has been chosen as the new company to try and reinvigorate the public image and advertising of Second Life.
Time will tell if this can be a highly beneficial move for Linden Lab and Second Life.
Linden Lab has announced a new freebies policy for listing products on XStreet SL. There will now be a fee for listing freebies. Within the next 90 days the policy will become active. While freebies will not actually be removed completely, they seem to be highly discouraged.
Basically the Monthly Listing Fee will be L$99. But that is not all. Here is the full list of fees.
New XStreet SL Fees & Changes:
1. Monthly Listing Fee L$99
2. Minimum L$3 monthly commission on all items L$1 or over (not for freebies)
3. Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or over
4. Freebies no longer show up in searches or categories other than Freebies
A Sandbox in Second Life is where …… well…. anything can happen. The below machinima video demonstrates that perfectly as all kinds of strange and creative things are rezzed in a Sandbox in the virtual world of Second Life.
The video features some strange and disturbing builds.
The video is about 6 minutes long. Check it out below.
Anything Can Happen in the Sandbox Machinima Video:
Telstra BigPond is a large Internet Service Provider in Australia. They have had a presence in the virtual world of Second Life for some time The BigPond virtual sim included cinema, racetracks, games, dance areas, and company information areas in addition to a customer service area that was fully staffed.
Telestra BigPond will close down their virtual sim on December 16, 2009. Craig Middleton a spokesman for Telstra BigPond stated that 2,000 regular Second Life users came through the BigPond virtual sim.
