Fighting Fire with Fire: Anshe Chung's Real Million Dollar Question

Reuters story, Anshe Chung battles ‘PR hype’ with some of her own, is interesting for a few different reasons. She of course substantiates her recent claim to having $1 million US worth of assets within SecondLife. From the article:

...“Before November 15th I used profits from this business and made one big investment of 250,000 US$ to expand Dreamland, our largest residential project,” she said . “After November 15th the land market changed, we experience big boom in Second Life now. This has pushed value of my assets above (US$1 million).”

“Most of the assets I currently own in Second Life are so-called estate simulators. With the new purchases these amount to about 550 simulators, also sometimes called ‘regions.’ Each simulates 256×256m of virtual land,” she added. “Prices of these have increased, to 1675-2000 US$ per sim, depending on the evaluation method.” Chung also owns some property on the mainland, plus various other Second Life assets...

Yes, prices have increased. And the need for land has increased. And... that leads us to the real million dollar question. Hold that thought, we'll get to that.

As asked in the interview - why issue press releases now (or, as it was, then?). The answer given was:

...“Another reason for the timing is that soon somebody would have PR-vapor-hyped himself/herself to this,” she said at the press conference...

Fair enough. I know the KnowProSE.com's office in SecondLife is on it's way to it's first 10,000 Linden, so she should be worried. Seriously, I'm not sure who would make the claim of being the first virtual millionaire other than Anshe. Does it matter? Well, for her and her company, it apparently is. Somewhere in all of this, people are forgetting that she didn't do it by herself. While it's good PR for her, it's not really all that fair for the people who allowed her to get this far either. It's a company. Like any other company. It just exists in a virtual world. But it's part of branding.

Now, according to the report, Anshe Chung's company plunked down $250,000 US into virtual real estate. That's a large chunk of money! And that leads us back to the million dollar question. But hold that thought.

Public relations is a fickle thing. It's all about perception. When companies came into SecondLife claiming to be the first, there was some uproar from a handful of very vocal people. There was a vote for a ban, which Anshe Chung supported... but there was no listing as to how many people voted for the proposal, and which way they voted. Sounds like a bit of public relations to me. And while Anshe rightfully claims first place as a millionaire in SecondLife holdings - at a risk to the tune of $250,000 US - the million dollar question pops up again.

Don't worry, you've held the thought long enough. Here's the million dollar question:

Is Anshe seeing a return on investment on par to what she planned for, or is she beginning to feel the crunch of the risk her company has taken?

See, behind all the smoke and mirrors, Anshe's got a lot of land which has no value unless something is done with it. Rental revenues and land sales are her float, they have gotten her as far as she has gotten. If she overinvests, she can see a reduction in profit and even a loss. That's business. So claiming to be the first millionaire gets her some press, and continues her branding.

Linden Lab continues to roll out land as fast as they can, and... if people are getting their own land directly from Linden Lab, they aren't buying it or renting it from... Anshe Chung. I know I might not be too comfortable. I'd want some press. And I would find a reason to issue a press release. Maybe more.

Yeah. It might be a good time for a press release. Maybe another one next week, perhaps? Next interview (since I probably won't be invited), I dare someone to ask her the real million dollar question. Come on. Be a sport. :-)