By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Jinny Fhang, a hip 26-year-old party girl, takes random late-night trips to clubs and bars dressed in a sexy Gucci dress, riding in her souped up Porsche Spyder. The crazy outings are her surest stress relievers, but the only catch is that the Porsche and the couture dress don't really exist. Neither does the nightlife.
In fact, Fhang, herself, is only an online avatar, created, dressed and controlled by a Korean-Japanese college student in Tokyo. Declining to disclose her real name, Fhang's owner says her virtual, second life is ``a cool way to discover and experience things she cares not to do in reality.''
All of this is made possible by an open ended, 3D virtual world called Second Life. Run by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, the semi-game is home to 16 million users around the world. In this space that's four times the size of Seoul, individuals can buy a house, be a fashion designer, fly on a jet or do whatever else they could ever dream of.
``It's an open platform, where users can create a new life that has many realistic factors to it as well,'' says Yool Kim, country manager of Linden Lab.
The online space's virtual economy, for example, closely reflects real life economy, in which consumers and producers exchange money for goods. Imagine Cyworld, a popular Korean Web community, but many times more advanced, Kim simplifies.
This was the aspect of Second Life that global corporations raced to capitalize on. From Toyota, Sony, MTV, Diageo, Adidas to IBM, major companies have taken up space in the make-believe world to ultimately attract consumers willing to spend real money later.
For Toyota and Starwood Hotels, Second Life served as a test market where it first introduced new car models or bedroom designs to check customer reaction.
Foreign makers are maximizing the latest technology by introducing new marketing methods, says Song Seung-hyuk of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), but Korean companies are falling behind in this area.
Kim, the local head of Linden Lab, said major local firms Samsung, Hyundai, KT and LG experimented with the service last year, but haven't benefited much because only 110,000 Korean users have so far signed up.
``Second Life is a service that requires patience to maneuver, but domestic users prefer things quickly,'' he explained, adding that it will take a few years for the business to mature here.