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Burj Al Arab, Hot Virtual Real Estate - Emirates Today
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Burj Al Arab a hot property on virtual real estate mart
30 June 2007
The real estate market in the UAE has become so hot that investors are now willing to pay for virtual land in the country, says a property website marketing the concept.
Burj Al Arab, Mall of the Emirates and Emirates Towers, for $1,500 (Dh5,508) each - as long as they do not mind never physically visiting their properties.
The virtual real estate market, according to the website, is booming as more people log on to the internet. Weblo.com claims to have sold 3,700 cities around the world for "real" money.
The site says it sold several states in the United States for large sums. California is said to have gone for $53,000 (Dh194,642), Texas for $23,000 (Dh84,467) and New York for $19,350 (Dh71,062).
Justinottawa, the web name used by the proud owner of the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia in Weblo.com's virtual world, is offering to re-sell the holy city for $1,000 (Dh3,675).
Weblo.com says investors buy its "real" estate for many reasons. Some are eager to own a prestigious piece of land, even if only in a virtual world, or they have an emotional connection to the location.
Financial reward may motivate others, as the site claims they stand to benefit if visitors to their virtual property click on advertisers associated with the locations or offer to purchase buildings or neighbourhoods in their city.
Several sites in the UAE are on offer on Weblo.com. Abu Dhabi, for example, is part of the growing real estate empire of an anonymous Torontobased investor.The owner says he is willing to transfer ownership of the UAE's captial for $1,000 (Dh3,675).
By VM Sathish
© Emirates Today 2007
Article originally published by Emirates Today 30-Jun-07
Burj Al Arab a hot property on virtual real estate mart
30 June 2007
The real estate market in the UAE has become so hot that investors are now willing to pay for virtual land in the country, says a property website marketing the concept.
Burj Al Arab, Mall of the Emirates and Emirates Towers, for $1,500 (Dh5,508) each - as long as they do not mind never physically visiting their properties.
The virtual real estate market, according to the website, is booming as more people log on to the internet. Weblo.com claims to have sold 3,700 cities around the world for "real" money.
The site says it sold several states in the United States for large sums. California is said to have gone for $53,000 (Dh194,642), Texas for $23,000 (Dh84,467) and New York for $19,350 (Dh71,062).
Justinottawa, the web name used by the proud owner of the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia in Weblo.com's virtual world, is offering to re-sell the holy city for $1,000 (Dh3,675).
Weblo.com says investors buy its "real" estate for many reasons. Some are eager to own a prestigious piece of land, even if only in a virtual world, or they have an emotional connection to the location.
Financial reward may motivate others, as the site claims they stand to benefit if visitors to their virtual property click on advertisers associated with the locations or offer to purchase buildings or neighbourhoods in their city.
Several sites in the UAE are on offer on Weblo.com. Abu Dhabi, for example, is part of the growing real estate empire of an anonymous Torontobased investor.The owner says he is willing to transfer ownership of the UAE's captial for $1,000 (Dh3,675).
By VM Sathish
© Emirates Today 2007
Article originally published by Emirates Today 30-Jun-07
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
England Up For Auction In Weblo Virtual World - The Age Australia
England' up for auction in Weblo virtual world
June 14, 2007 - 8:20PM
An online virtual world playfully branded "Monopoly on
steroids" is offering England to the highest bidder, with the winner to be crowned king or queen.
The website Weblo.com, a reality-based virtual world launched in December of 2006 by a Montreal-based firm of the same name, announced it was putting "England on auction."
Bidding begins Thursday and is expected to top 70,000 US dollars by the time the auction gavel drops July 12.
California is the most costly Weblo "property" to date, bought at auction for 53,000 US dollars, according to company spokesman Sean Morrow.
"We thought we could break out of the mold by not just letting someone be the president of a country, but the virtual king or queen," Morrow told AFP.
"We already have teams of Weblonians, citizens of Weblo, expressing interest."
The monarch of Weblo's England not only has the opportunity for prestige and profits at his or her own Weblo profile page, they get a percentage of all financial transactions in a virtual equivalent of taxes.
Unlike Internet virtual worlds of Second Life and Entropia Universe, members of Weblo are represented by MySpace-like profile pages rather than animated characters called "avatars."
Instead of fantasy planets or islands such as those in Second Life or Entropia, Weblo virtual properties are web pages themed for places, people or things from the real world.
"The real-world element of Weblo sets us apart form other virtual worlds," Morrow said.
"People have an affinity to their home towns, schools, the houses they grew up in -- so people are registering them as profiles. With Weblo you build a profile of yourself and favourite things and have a chance to monetize it."
Weblo properties vie for visitors with updates of news, photos, video, journal entries or other content in keeping with the theme, whether it is California, Paris Hilton, or England.
Owners share in online advertising revenues that rise with the popularity of their in-world pages.
"You promote sites, cities, celebrities the same way you would a MySpace page, but at Weblo you get paid," Morrow said. "If you own Paris Hilton on Weblo you can update how she is doing in jail to keep users coming back."
Weblo shunned avatars, betting people prefer a simple Monopoly game-format to the complexity of maneuvering avatars about animated terrain.
"Virtual worlds in general are a concept that scares the average person, figuring out how to move the avatar in that world," Morrow said.
"Monopoly has been around a long time and being compared to Monopoly-on-steroids is neat. If you can attach a picture to e-mail you can participate in Weblo. There is no learning curve."
Membership at Weblo is free and the website claims nearly 40,000 members.
"We're babies," Morrow said. "But we're out of the gate and running quickly."
The next major property to be put up for sale may be the United States, with an auction timed to coincide with the presidential election in 2008.
"That is another great avenue for exploration," Morrow said of the idea. "Anything that is out there in the real world can be brought in to the Weblo world."
© 2006 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.
Subscribe to The Age for your chance to win 12 years of Penfolds Grange!
England On Auction
June 14, 2007 - 8:20PM
An online virtual world playfully branded "Monopoly on
steroids" is offering England to the highest bidder, with the winner to be crowned king or queen.
The website Weblo.com, a reality-based virtual world launched in December of 2006 by a Montreal-based firm of the same name, announced it was putting "England on auction."
Bidding begins Thursday and is expected to top 70,000 US dollars by the time the auction gavel drops July 12.
California is the most costly Weblo "property" to date, bought at auction for 53,000 US dollars, according to company spokesman Sean Morrow.
"We thought we could break out of the mold by not just letting someone be the president of a country, but the virtual king or queen," Morrow told AFP.
"We already have teams of Weblonians, citizens of Weblo, expressing interest."
The monarch of Weblo's England not only has the opportunity for prestige and profits at his or her own Weblo profile page, they get a percentage of all financial transactions in a virtual equivalent of taxes.
Unlike Internet virtual worlds of Second Life and Entropia Universe, members of Weblo are represented by MySpace-like profile pages rather than animated characters called "avatars."
Instead of fantasy planets or islands such as those in Second Life or Entropia, Weblo virtual properties are web pages themed for places, people or things from the real world.
"The real-world element of Weblo sets us apart form other virtual worlds," Morrow said.
"People have an affinity to their home towns, schools, the houses they grew up in -- so people are registering them as profiles. With Weblo you build a profile of yourself and favourite things and have a chance to monetize it."
Weblo properties vie for visitors with updates of news, photos, video, journal entries or other content in keeping with the theme, whether it is California, Paris Hilton, or England.
Owners share in online advertising revenues that rise with the popularity of their in-world pages.
"You promote sites, cities, celebrities the same way you would a MySpace page, but at Weblo you get paid," Morrow said. "If you own Paris Hilton on Weblo you can update how she is doing in jail to keep users coming back."
Weblo shunned avatars, betting people prefer a simple Monopoly game-format to the complexity of maneuvering avatars about animated terrain.
"Virtual worlds in general are a concept that scares the average person, figuring out how to move the avatar in that world," Morrow said.
"Monopoly has been around a long time and being compared to Monopoly-on-steroids is neat. If you can attach a picture to e-mail you can participate in Weblo. There is no learning curve."
Membership at Weblo is free and the website claims nearly 40,000 members.
"We're babies," Morrow said. "But we're out of the gate and running quickly."
The next major property to be put up for sale may be the United States, with an auction timed to coincide with the presidential election in 2008.
"That is another great avenue for exploration," Morrow said of the idea. "Anything that is out there in the real world can be brought in to the Weblo world."
© 2006 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.
Subscribe to The Age for your chance to win 12 years of Penfolds Grange!
England On Auction
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Virtual Mayor - Brockville Recorder & Times
Montreal man paid $5 on the web
to become virtual mayor of Brockville
By RONALD ZAJAC
to become virtual mayor of Brockville
By RONALD ZAJAC
Staff Writer
It cost Montreal resident Alan Morrison all of $5 to become Brockville's new mayor.
Well, virtually, anyway.
The 40-year-old West Island resident, one of the nearly 30,000 members of the "virtual world" known as Weblo.com, recently spent that sum to purchase the company's virtual rights to Brockville.
"I just thought it would be fun," he said in a telephone interview.
The unemployed former office worker in the aerospace industry is also the virtual mayor of other cities and towns including Napanee, Tweed, Orangeville and Kamloops, B.C.
"It's a nice small town," he said of Brockville.
Weblo bills itself as a "social networking" website with "localized, relevant content about the real world."
The Montreal-based company was launched officially last December and now has nearly 30,000 members worldwide, said Weblo's senior director of marketing and operations, Kelly Ekins. Members use real-world money to buy virtual representations of real places on Weblo, said Ekins.
What they get is a small web page where they can put up relevant content about the place in question and derive revenue from relevant advertising funnelled to it by Weblo, she said.
The site is based on the American model, so Canadian provinces end up having "governors" rather than premiers, she said.
Hence, as Brockville's virtual mayor, Morrison must pay Ontario's virtual "governor" a cut of his ad revenue and other percentages on transactions on his page.
It may sound like a game, but many people figure they can make money off it. Weblo staff said the virtual equivalent of California sold for $53,000, while virtual Ontario sold for $16,900.
But Brockville residents hoping to see themselves represented on Weblo may be a little disappointed. So far, there is very little Brockville-related content on the site. What figures most prominently is a MySpace video about a Bigfoot encounter.
Morrison said he bought up a few small cities on Weblo hoping the upstart company will prove as popular as another virtual world, Second Life, where people have been making money on similar transactions.
Should Weblo prove as big a cyberspace hit, he may even get a profit by selling Brockville to someone else. (The city's current resale price is listed as $100.)
Interested area residents can get to Brockville's Weblo equivalent by going to www.weblo.com/property/city/Brockville/62368.
· Published in Section b, page 7 in the Saturday, May 26, 2007
edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
· Posted 10:00:55 AM Saturday, May 26, 2007.
It cost Montreal resident Alan Morrison all of $5 to become Brockville's new mayor.
Well, virtually, anyway.
The 40-year-old West Island resident, one of the nearly 30,000 members of the "virtual world" known as Weblo.com, recently spent that sum to purchase the company's virtual rights to Brockville.
"I just thought it would be fun," he said in a telephone interview.
The unemployed former office worker in the aerospace industry is also the virtual mayor of other cities and towns including Napanee, Tweed, Orangeville and Kamloops, B.C.
"It's a nice small town," he said of Brockville.
Weblo bills itself as a "social networking" website with "localized, relevant content about the real world."
The Montreal-based company was launched officially last December and now has nearly 30,000 members worldwide, said Weblo's senior director of marketing and operations, Kelly Ekins. Members use real-world money to buy virtual representations of real places on Weblo, said Ekins.
What they get is a small web page where they can put up relevant content about the place in question and derive revenue from relevant advertising funnelled to it by Weblo, she said.
The site is based on the American model, so Canadian provinces end up having "governors" rather than premiers, she said.
Hence, as Brockville's virtual mayor, Morrison must pay Ontario's virtual "governor" a cut of his ad revenue and other percentages on transactions on his page.
It may sound like a game, but many people figure they can make money off it. Weblo staff said the virtual equivalent of California sold for $53,000, while virtual Ontario sold for $16,900.
But Brockville residents hoping to see themselves represented on Weblo may be a little disappointed. So far, there is very little Brockville-related content on the site. What figures most prominently is a MySpace video about a Bigfoot encounter.
Morrison said he bought up a few small cities on Weblo hoping the upstart company will prove as popular as another virtual world, Second Life, where people have been making money on similar transactions.
Should Weblo prove as big a cyberspace hit, he may even get a profit by selling Brockville to someone else. (The city's current resale price is listed as $100.)
Interested area residents can get to Brockville's Weblo equivalent by going to www.weblo.com/property/city/Brockville/62368.
· Published in Section b, page 7 in the Saturday, May 26, 2007
edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
· Posted 10:00:55 AM Saturday, May 26, 2007.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Virtual Property for Real Dollars - Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON JOURNAL
Virtual property for real dollars
Analyst doubts 'experiment' can succeed
David Finlayson, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, May 18, 2007
EDMONTON - Meet the new premier of Alberta and B.C. -- Gela Chisholm of St.Albert.
She bought both provinces on weblo.com, the new virtual world that's sort of Monopoly for real money.
So why would a single parent and bookkeeper who freely admits she's technology challenged invest $10,000 in a scheme where no real property actually changes hands?
"I was looking for something different to invest in and my son Preston came across Weblo when he was on his computer.
"I have to look after myself and my financial adviser told me to diversify, and it sounded intriguing."
Montreal-based Weblo, which launched its virtual world last September, essentially sells web pages representing states, provinces, cities, and buildings in the real world.
You can also "buy" celebrities, airports and corporate domains. Latest celebs available include Princess Diana, with a reserve of $49.
Owners keep the click-through ad revenue generated by their pages but have to pay a slice of it in "taxes" to the owners of the city and state or province pages where their
properties are located.
Chisolm has already recovered some of her original investment by reselling properties. She bought Dallas for $40 and sold for $1,000, and also made money reselling Nashville and Berlin.
She still owns B.C., which cost $3,674, Alberta, $3,035, Melbourne, Anaheim, Cannes, France, and London, Ont.
Most of her properties were chosen based on how well-known they are, and how many visitors the pages would likely attract. But she picked Melbourne because she has relatives there.
"I can use my computer accounting programs, but after that I'm not much good," Chisholm said.
"So I got (16-year-old) Preston to set it up so I just have to point and click to buy or sell something."
She hasn't taken any cash out yet, and is not sure how much "tax" money she's generated. But she believes she will get a good return on her investment at some point. Latest figures from Weblo show Quebec has generated $859, Ontario $822, British Columbia $332 and Alberta $112.
However, some media analysts believe it's not a sustainable business model, especially for people buying in later.
Barry Parr, a media analyst with Jupiter Research, said Weblo is "an interesting experiment" as many people turn to virtual worlds for a sense of community eroded by cars, suburban sprawl and TV.
But the challenge is drawing enough users to make virtual properties scarce enough to create supply-and-demand pressures mirror reality.
"You can't value things simply on the ability to sell them to someone else. I don't know what's going to drive the audience. It doesn't feel like a sustainable business."
Others say Weblo could face copyright and trademark infringement challenges.
But Weblo marketing director Kelly Elkins said there is a huge audience for virtual worlds, fuelled by the gaming culture.
"Studies show that 80 per cent of active Internet users will have virtual lives by 2011.
Escaping to another world after a day at work is very attractive. And with Weblo they can look at piece of live property like the CN Tower and say 'I own that.' "
The nostalgia factor also comes into play, Elkins said, with people buying the towns or even the houses they grew up in, or a favourite sports stadium and setting up a fan page.
She said they've signed up 30,000 members since the September launch, and the goal is to generate $10 million in revenue by the end of the year.
Cost of membership ranges from free to $269 US, depending on which level you choose. The higher the level the more perks and potential revenue there is.
Weblo's still trailing far behind other, more high tech, virtual worlds such as Second Life and MySpace.com in numbers.
But founder Rocky Mirza likes to point out his investors include Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace.com; Matt Hill, founder of eForce Media; and William Woodward, founder and managing Director of Anthem Venture Partners.
Elkins said more than 7,300 cities have sold worldwide, and most Canadian cities have virtual mayors. Edmonton is owned by someone in North Bay, Ont.
Ontario re-sold for $16,900 after the original buyer got it for $11,550.
Las Vegas, originally bought for $430, recently resold for $2,300, Elkins said.
The largest chunk of change came from a lawyer who bought California for $53,000.
New York sold for $19,350, Texas sold for $23,328 and Florida $18,000.
Premier Chisholm is not in those leagues -- yet.
"It's really fun right now. It's just like a game to me."
dfinlayson@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Virtual property for real dollars
Analyst doubts 'experiment' can succeed
David Finlayson, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, May 18, 2007
EDMONTON - Meet the new premier of Alberta and B.C. -- Gela Chisholm of St.Albert.
She bought both provinces on weblo.com, the new virtual world that's sort of Monopoly for real money.
So why would a single parent and bookkeeper who freely admits she's technology challenged invest $10,000 in a scheme where no real property actually changes hands?
"I was looking for something different to invest in and my son Preston came across Weblo when he was on his computer.
"I have to look after myself and my financial adviser told me to diversify, and it sounded intriguing."
Montreal-based Weblo, which launched its virtual world last September, essentially sells web pages representing states, provinces, cities, and buildings in the real world.
You can also "buy" celebrities, airports and corporate domains. Latest celebs available include Princess Diana, with a reserve of $49.
Owners keep the click-through ad revenue generated by their pages but have to pay a slice of it in "taxes" to the owners of the city and state or province pages where their
properties are located.
Chisolm has already recovered some of her original investment by reselling properties. She bought Dallas for $40 and sold for $1,000, and also made money reselling Nashville and Berlin.
She still owns B.C., which cost $3,674, Alberta, $3,035, Melbourne, Anaheim, Cannes, France, and London, Ont.
Most of her properties were chosen based on how well-known they are, and how many visitors the pages would likely attract. But she picked Melbourne because she has relatives there.
"I can use my computer accounting programs, but after that I'm not much good," Chisholm said.
"So I got (16-year-old) Preston to set it up so I just have to point and click to buy or sell something."
She hasn't taken any cash out yet, and is not sure how much "tax" money she's generated. But she believes she will get a good return on her investment at some point. Latest figures from Weblo show Quebec has generated $859, Ontario $822, British Columbia $332 and Alberta $112.
However, some media analysts believe it's not a sustainable business model, especially for people buying in later.
Barry Parr, a media analyst with Jupiter Research, said Weblo is "an interesting experiment" as many people turn to virtual worlds for a sense of community eroded by cars, suburban sprawl and TV.
But the challenge is drawing enough users to make virtual properties scarce enough to create supply-and-demand pressures mirror reality.
"You can't value things simply on the ability to sell them to someone else. I don't know what's going to drive the audience. It doesn't feel like a sustainable business."
Others say Weblo could face copyright and trademark infringement challenges.
But Weblo marketing director Kelly Elkins said there is a huge audience for virtual worlds, fuelled by the gaming culture.
"Studies show that 80 per cent of active Internet users will have virtual lives by 2011.
Escaping to another world after a day at work is very attractive. And with Weblo they can look at piece of live property like the CN Tower and say 'I own that.' "
The nostalgia factor also comes into play, Elkins said, with people buying the towns or even the houses they grew up in, or a favourite sports stadium and setting up a fan page.
She said they've signed up 30,000 members since the September launch, and the goal is to generate $10 million in revenue by the end of the year.
Cost of membership ranges from free to $269 US, depending on which level you choose. The higher the level the more perks and potential revenue there is.
Weblo's still trailing far behind other, more high tech, virtual worlds such as Second Life and MySpace.com in numbers.
But founder Rocky Mirza likes to point out his investors include Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace.com; Matt Hill, founder of eForce Media; and William Woodward, founder and managing Director of Anthem Venture Partners.
Elkins said more than 7,300 cities have sold worldwide, and most Canadian cities have virtual mayors. Edmonton is owned by someone in North Bay, Ont.
Ontario re-sold for $16,900 after the original buyer got it for $11,550.
Las Vegas, originally bought for $430, recently resold for $2,300, Elkins said.
The largest chunk of change came from a lawyer who bought California for $53,000.
New York sold for $19,350, Texas sold for $23,328 and Florida $18,000.
Premier Chisholm is not in those leagues -- yet.
"It's really fun right now. It's just like a game to me."
dfinlayson@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
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