Anshe Chung Draws Venture Capital Investment
Anshe Chung Studios, which produces digital content and services for virtual worlds like Second Life, IMVU and others, has drawn a round of funding from New York venture capital firm Gladwyne Partners, who were early investors in the Electric Sheep Company. Sources at Gladwyne tell 3pointD the investment closed today, but wouldn’t reveal the amount. Gladwyne should be quite happy to have found another play in the virtual world sector; they’ve been looking very closely at the space since hopping into the Sheep pen. From the sound of things, they’re continuing the due diligence they’ve been doing throughout the space for the last year or two, so look for more, although it remains to be seen how soon. And congratulations to Anshe (or rather, to the husband-and-wife team behind the avatar), who has built an unparalleled “native” virtual-world brand over the last four years or so. Such companies should be under pressure from bigger, more established production houses, but none seem to have made significant in-roads. Anshe also has the advantage of having outsourced much of her studio’s work to employees in her native China, which may have made a difference to Gladwyne. In any case, it’s interesting to see just how far you can go with amateur content-creation, which is where Anshe started. Nice to see Gladwyne concentrating so heavily on the space, as well. We look forward to more.
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Does this mean she’ll still be trying to monopolize items within Second Life - with a bigger wallet?
Will she drop her land prices? Will she stop scraping 16m plots out of her tenants lands?
This all just doesn’t seem to add up. Good luck.
yea makes sense to invest millions in a company that plans to price it’s products so low there is no freaking possibility of a return. Gladwyne Partners was either lied to or is smoking dope because they are stupid if they think an investment in ACS will turn the profit they hope for.
[…] Anshe Chung Studios maintains offices in the real world where it employs more than 60 people full time, I believe in China where most of their employees are from, and they also use virtual reality freelancers world wide. They host thousands of residents on more than 40 square kilometers of gated communities, and according to Anshe Chung Studios, they have developed more virtual property than any other Metaverse development company. Sources at Gladwyne tell 3pointD the investment closed today, but wouldn’t reveal the amount. Gladwyne should be quite happy to have found another play in the virtual world sector; they’ve been looking very closely at the space since hopping into the Sheep pen. From the sound of things, they’re continuing the due diligence they’ve been doing throughout the space for the last year or two, so look for more, although it remains to be seen how soon. And congratulations to Anshe (or rather, to the husband-and-wife team behind the avatar), who has built an unparalleled “native” virtual-world brand over the last four years or so. Such companies should be under pressure from bigger, more established production houses, but none seem to have made significant in-roads. Anshe also has the advantage of having outsourced much of her studio’s work to employees in her native China, which may have made a difference to Gladwyne. Source: Anshe Chung Draws Venture Capital Investment […]
An interesting point in this release is where are the majors, Sony, et al, what’s with those guys? Surely they can move a bit faster than a snails pace and bring out the next big step which will spin the whole virtual economy again.
There was much talk some months ago about a Sony, or a MS platform, they’ve had a few years assuming they were awake when LL got started. I have tried a couple of the other virtual worlds, Entropia and Hipihi, but LL has got it all over them. Where are the pros?
@ Jazzman,
Interesting you should bring up Sony today as I was discussing them w/ a few colleagues earlier. Sony’s entrance in the virtual world landscape has been long awaited, but there are still signs that it will come. Afterworld’s creator Brent Friedman has devulged that Sony is apparently interested in Afterworld for a future mmo or virtual world platform (according to a Gamasutra article).
But, not to get too caught up w/ Sony, some have argued that the ‘metaverse’ landscape has been dominated by SecondLife, for better and for worse. I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing mind you, but I do believe that with time we will see more direct competition. Ideally, each platform would appeal to a certain individual or company and what they are seeking to accomplish. I have had word that Hollywood has thrown itself into the mix, but that remains to be seen as well. In short, there are many avenues for the ‘big boys’ to evaluate, and I have no doubt that they will sooner rather than later.
All of that said, back on topic… another big news story for ACS. I am interested in seeing how they intend to utilize this new cash flow. Currently, it seems there isn’t much more ACS can do within SL (although that’s debatable, I realize). Her efforts in Entropia Universe are still in limbo (she purchased one of five banks that has yet to officially open), thus suggesting her hands are already tied there. That makes me wonder what her next move will be.. and where.
my 0.02
Thanks for the info Bonnie and the link through your name sends me deeper into this subject. Deeper than I would have thought would interest me a matter of a month back.
I don’t see any problem with LL leading the show, the code must be mind-boggling complex, and that big growth spike they had obviously went beyond the hardware capabilities, but they are catching up, the platform is getting more stable (bar weekend attacks which you can almost set your clock by).
What I have trouble understanding clearly, is why Sony et al are taking so long? Surely a megacorp could have the the whole thing written up in a few months doing beta testing while writing and the offer it up very quickly. They must have scads of the code already written from their games.
I suppose the time lag (4 years+ since sl debuted) is because it is harder to move something as big as Sony and they may have a bit of the “those little guys don’t matter” attitude.
I believe (I have to say “believe” because I have no evidence or knowledge) but the metaverses have to connect into one like the web did. SO if I log into sl I can tp over to entropia, or into a half-life game seamlessly. As a fairly simple user of these things I say “bring it on”.
I can imagine that Ms Chung has been banging on a lot of doors for money to make her next “leap forward”. I am assured by your post that there are better minds than mine hurting themselves on this issue.
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