Anshe Chung

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Anshe Chung

May 1, 2006 cover of BusinessWeek magazine featuring Anshe Chung
Born March 26, 2004(2004-03-26)
China
Residence Second Life virtual world
Occupation Virtual Real Estate Broker
Salary 2 million in 30 months
Known for 1st 'Virtual Millionaire'
Website
www.anshechung.com
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Anshe Chung is the main avatar (online personality) of Ailin Graef in the online world Second Life. Referred to as the "Rockefeller of Second Life"[1] by a CNN journalist, she has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items, and currencies, and has been featured in a number of prominent magazines such as Business Week[2] , Fortune[3] and Red Herring.[4]

Contents

[edit] Background

According to Chung, she already created fortunes in purely virtual currency on other MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call, Star Wars Galaxies and Shadowbane,[5] but never converted to real tender. However, this changed when she entered Second Life, where the in-game currency, "Linden Dollars" (L$), can be officially exchanged for real money.[6][7] The name "Anshe" was originally coined in Asheron's Call in December 1999.[5]

In her early Second Life days, prior to founding the business that made her famous, Anshe Chung had a goal of using virtual wealth to support an orphaned boy in a developing country in the real world. With her first Linden dollars she was able to sponsor a boy named Geo from the Philippines through a German church organization.[8] She raised funds through event hosting, escorting,[3] erotic services,[9] teaching[10] and fashion design.

[edit] Business

According to Chung, in June 2004 she began selling and creating custom animations and then used this money to buy and develop virtual land. This is also considered the beginning of her business where, for the first time, she kept and reinvested funds instead of giving them away. Chung currently owns hundreds of servers' worth of land, most of which are sold or rented to other users as a part of her 'Dreamland' areas. Within Dreamland various levels of zoning rules are enforced; most other land in Second Life is unzoned, where multiple different types of business or housing are located in adjacent areas.[11] Philip Rosedale, the CEO of Linden Lab - the company that produces Second Life - has referred to Anshe as "the government" when referring to the role she plays managing her regions.[12]

According to Dr. James Cook of Linden Lab "Anshe adds significant value to Second Life".[13]

In February 2006 Ailin Graef legally incorporated "Anshe Chung Studios, Ltd." in Hubei, China with her husband and business partner, Guntram Graef,[14] who goes by the pseudonym "Guni Greenstein" in Second Life.

In November 2006 Chung announced that she had "become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world"[14]

Meanwhile Anshe Chung's business employs more than 60 people full time, most of them programmers and artists. She counts several Fortune 100 companies among her clients as well as high profile organizations such as the government of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lifechurch.TV, whose Second Life entry her firm developed.

In January 2007 Anshe Chung Studios received venture capital investment from the Samwer brothers who purchased a stake in the Anshe Chung Studios [15][16].

In May 2007 it was reported that her business has also branched out into other virtual worlds, acquiring one of the world's first virtual banking licenses within Entropia Universe for a sum of $60,000 USD. The two-year exclusive licenses allow the integration of real world banking systems into Entropia Universe, providing secure systems that enable the lending of money to participants and collection of interest. Uniquely the banks have integrated services within the mechanics of Entropia Universe and are not just virtual advertising spots.[17].

[edit] Target of griefing

In December 2006, while conducting an interview for CNET with Daniel Terdiman on her economic assets, the virtual studio in which the interview took place was bombarded by flying animated penises and copies of a photo of Graef modified to show her holding a giant penis in her arms. The griefers managed to disrupt the interview sufficiently that Chung was forced to move to another location and ultimately crashed the simulator entirely.[18] Video and images of the incident were posted to the "Second Life Safari" section of Something Awful, and the incident received international notice via blogs including Boing Boing and the online edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. Two weeks later, Anshe's husband, Guntram Graef, issued takedown notices under the DMCA, demanding that newspapers and websites remove photos and videos of the incident and claiming that they violated Graef's copyright in her avatar and other virtual creations. YouTube pulled the videos of the incident as a DMCA violation and banned the account of Second Life Safari, bringing objections from legal experts who considered the work "fair use".[19] A Linden Labs spokesperson suggested that the taking of videos and photos in Second Life should be governed by the same rules as in real life,[20] and an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation compared it "to Armani attempting to restrict news photos of a car crash where one of the drivers was wearing an Armani suit."[21]

After news of these events and the legal objections spread across a number of sites including Slashdot, YouTube changed its rationale for removing copies of the video to terms of use violation, and in an interview Guntram Graef said that issuing the takedown notices had been a mistake. He referred to the images as 'pornographic material' and said The video and pictures are clearly defaming and constitute a sexual assault. He stated that he had originally tried to have the videos removed as a personal attack and infringement on rights, but later changed to a copyright claim when that didn't produce a response. When he realized the issues of censorship, he dropped the copyright claim.[19] Stephen Hutcheon, writer of the original story for the Sydney Morning Herald's blog, who had also received an email saying he violated copyright,[21] followed the next day with a piece, "Anshe's Kinky Past Revealed," which confirmed rumors that Anshe Chung had originally been a virtual escort and sold erotic services for in-game currency.[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sloan, Paul (December 1, 2005). The Virtual Rockefeller. CNN. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  2. ^ My Virtual Life. Business Week (May 1, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  3. ^ a b Parloff, Roger (November 28, 2005). FROM MEGS TO RICHES. CNN. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  4. ^ http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19927&hed=Second+Life%25e2%2580%2599s+First+Millionaire
  5. ^ a b Press Kit - Anshe Chung. Anshe Chung Studios (November 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  6. ^ Economy. Linden Lab. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  7. ^ LindeX Market Data. Linden Lab. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  8. ^ The Herald Profile: Anshe Chung Walker Spaight, The Second Life Herald, 2005-01-25. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  9. ^ a b Anshe's kinky past revealed. The Age. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
  10. ^ Diaz, Cristiano (aka Cristiano Midnight) (November 28, 2004). Introducing The Chat History Interview - Anshe Chung. SL Universe. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  11. ^ Why Anshe Chung is a Millionaire
  12. ^ The Virtual Rockefeller
  13. ^ Virtual goods, real income
  14. ^ a b Anshe Chung Becomes First Virtual World Millionaire. Anshe Chung Studios (November 26, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  15. ^ Samwer Brothers Take 10% Stake in Anshe Chung Studios
  16. ^ http://www.faz.net/s/RubC8BA5576CDEE4A05AF8DFEC92E288D64/Doc~E9C422DEC9FB74F18A670192D7E6FDCDD~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html Echtes Geld fuer die Virtuelle Welt]
  17. ^ Anshe Chung a Winner of the World's First Virtual Banking Licenses
  18. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (December 20, 2006). Virtual magnate shares secrets of success. CNET. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
  19. ^ a b Behind the Anshe Chung DMCA complaint
  20. ^ Reuters, Adam (January 5, 2007). Anshe Chung Studios cracks down on griefing photos. Reuters. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.

[edit] External links

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