The Alphaville Herald

Second Life metaLIFE Market Grows at XStreet’s Expense

by Alphaville Herald on 30/11/09 at 8:03 am

by Coke Supply

Ever since XStreet was taken over by Linden Lab, there has been a demand for independent sites that offer the same services due to resident fears that Linden Lab would run their site into the ground. Now that the Lab appears to be doing just that with the introduction of their new "XStreet Roadmap" pricing policy, a mass exodus of merchants is looking for a more customer-friendly service with which to conduct their business.

Slapt.me and metaLIFE are two of XStreet's leading competitors and, as a direct result of the Lab's latest error, residents are signing up to these sites in droves. In the last week or so, both sites have experienced a phenomenal growth rate which can only be a direct result of the Lab's recently announced policies. Indeed, according to Robbie Kiama, one of the founders of the metaLIFE merchant system, Linden Lab's recent actions have been hugely beneficial to his business.

RK:  When Xstreet made their announcement, it sent ripples across the Second Life community. Of course, news of LL's new policy reached metaLIFE very fast. And so it started – we got coverage across many blogs and websites, and people started comparing all of the available alternatives, metaLIFE included, and so lots of people discovered us during this period. So, we had an unexpected growth of people coming to our website and to our inworld HQ, trying our services. Users grew by 33%. We already had a lot of users who had tried our system at some point, but this time over a thousand new users joined MetaLIFE. Vendors more than doubled, growing by 56%, and currently 1200 vendors have been rezzed on the grid in the last 24 hours.

Available items have also doubled, rising 49% to a total of 17536 items at the time of writing. We were working like crazy, doing demos left and right, helping this person, making sure that person knows how to set up their vendors, answering the other person on the forums, dealing with 10 IMs at a time, etcetera. Now, things are a bit more structured, but the first few days were as hectic as one can imagine. Now, most of the conversation is happening over the forums, or on the metaLIFE partner group in SL, where people are discussing various matters, asking us lots of questions, giving us lots of suggestions on how to improve the service, and so on. It's been a struggle, but the best part is that those who actually do get to try our services come back to say that they really like our system, the vision behind it, they like our innovative approach, and so on…

This feels good when people appreciate your work in this way. And the network is  growing very rapidly, with the amount of vendors and items doubling during the last two weeks. It's just amazing to see the change. Linden Lab's news definitely impacted us big time. We never actually anticipated such a fast growth, and to tell you the truth we were not prepared for this spike. We wanted to take it slow and improve our service step by step! There is a saying "God laughs at our plans". So for all of you who see something to be improved, please bear with us and we will take one step at a time improving all of our services.

In what some might consider a calculated and aggressive move at this crucial point in time, the owners of metaLIFE have also decided to go one step further than their competitors and have introduced a commission fee of precisely zero for all merchants that distribute their wares through the metaLIFE website.

RK:  Currently, the amount of requests have become so large that we have had to prioritise and choose which features to implement first. What we did was listen to all of the merchants and saw some major concerns that were either making our customers dissatisfied or confused. So we thought about this for a long time and after internal discussions about the best way to improve our services, we arrived at the decision to simplify our commission calculation process. Now, all the sales via the website are completely free. Referrers get a flat 5 percent commission, and we don't get anything.

We just launched metaLIFE ZERO yesterday, so it is a bit early to talk about the consequences, but most people are asking "Are you going to survive with zero commission?" And the answer is yes, we are. We are still taking commission from sales generated via our in-world vendor network, and we also have some services in mind for the future which will further support metaLIFE's development. So, web sales will now be free from now on, and next we will devise some more advanced ways to deal with clutter and freebies than putting a price tag on them!

Also, very recently, we launched a new feature enabling our merchants to set their own commission rates for their affiliates. This commission system works like a charm in-world for all the affiliate sales. Lots of people have moved with their brands to metaLIFE since then, and lots more have joined those brands as affilaites, reselling for them.

But the good news doesn't stop there. MetaLIFE have gone even further and produced a fully featured vendor system that is undeniably the greatest networked vendor system this reporter has ever come across. The new vendor system is very highly affiliate-oriented and is remarkably versatile. Users can browse items that are published on the metaLIFE website via the inworld vendors without ever having to visit the website, as well as accomodating a remarkable branding feature that enables merchants to collaborate together in many ways to increase the visibility and sales of their merchandise.

Intrigued by the new vendor system presented to me by Robbie Kiama, I agreed to conduct an interview to investigate the potentials of the metaLIFE system.

CS:  So, start by giving me some background on the team behind metaLIFE.

RK:  The whole metaLIFE team is from Lithuania. Actually most of us (me, Pauly and Auris) know each other from childhood. We went to the same schools and later to the same University. Auris Surface and SaltasAlus2 Carter both graduated at university completing their masters degree in IT. Pauly Richez completed a masters in marketing and business administration. I got my masters in strategic business management and a bachelor in IT, and now both of these fields complement each other really nicely.

CS:  So you're all university graduates?

RK:  Yes. We have all worked in various companies and have a wide range of experience. I soon found myself wondering about the new frontiers of business, and the original idea for metaLIFE was born when I was reading some scientific magazines back in 2005. In 2006, we started our first testings, but we finally decided to pursue this venture more seriously last year, and formed a company in the summer of 2008. Since then, we have been working on this full time. We all truly believe in 3D worlds, and what Linden Lab are doing is amazing. But of course, what you see here is just the start. We have seen an area which we can improve greatly, giving quality tools to the community and giving the service which the community can use to self regulate, creating new and innovative means that allow the enthusiastic and passionate people of Second Life to achieve their goals. That's precisely why we created metaLIFE: to empower your Second Life

CS:  what policy does metaLIFE have regarding people that sell stolen items on your website? Linden Lab tends to leave stolen items on their site unless a DMCA is filed, even if it is obvious to everyone that the item is a carbon copy.

RK:  Well, people can report items that are stolen. We will finetune the mechanisms of flagging the content or the seller in the future to help the community self-regulate, because once metaLIFE gets big enough, our team will not be able to keep track of all the things listed in such a system. Since we are just getting out of our beta period, we are still small and we can manage each case manually, but the community will always know better than a few individuals will ever know. So, self policing instruments will be introduced in time as the needs arise.

CS:  what will happen to the merchants that use metaLIFE to sell stolen content? I have been told that slapt.me will remove those items AND the merchant without a DMCA process being necessary. If so, then I'm sure that in the long run, this will make them more popular than Xstreet, who seem to enjoy selling stolen content.

RK:  We haven't decided yet. I think we will first ask the community for their opinion what to do in cases like this. So whatever the community decides, we will go with it.

CS:  That's a great attitude

RK:  Well it's important to listen – without listening we would have never come up with many many features and rules that already exist in metaLIFE. Only our community knows what it truly needs. There is no one diety that can tell how it should be done, and the evolution of such a system is a process that is never stopping – there is always something new, something to improve, and that's how we view things at metaLIFE – we are on a constand road of evolution.

CS:  Tell me about the metaLIFE system, and what it means to merchants using it in Second Life.

RK:  Well, unlike traditional merchant systems, the website is just a part of the whole metaLIFE system. The core is the supporting system which handles the database and all of the transactions and interactions between in-world tools and the outside web. The website, the vendors, the HUD and any new tools are basically a user interface for the core functionality of the system as a whole. Our goal is to create a system which would enable a 3d World user to interact with the system in any means they find relevant to them personally, be it the website, the in-world tools, and/or any other future means. The big news is that we have finally perfected our vendor, which is now a highly affiliate-oriented vendor. We have released the first version of this new vendor for testing and to gather user requirement information. So far, the launch has been very successful. We are creating a system for the people and by the people – most of the features have been asked for by our community, and we design the system and the tools with their help. Anybody can have their say about anything they want on our forums. Lots of bug reports and feature requests go there.

CS:  So, before you show me the vendor, can you tell me a little bit about it, and what makes it so much better than the older version?

RK:  The big news is that we finally have produced something that both big and small businesses can use in SL to both grow beyond means previously impossible. The old vendor was slow, around 3 times slower than the new vendor, and was laggy, causing 3 times more lag. It also had lots of prims – up to 26 – which was very affiliate undriendly. The affiliate also had to go to the website to join the brands and then find on the location of the vendors on the website to assign the brand to the vendor. Now, the new vendor system is very fast and very low prim – only 10 prims are now used. The new feature, auto-branding, was not available on the old vendors and it is now remarkably easy to get other residents to promote your brand, and has literally changed the way people think of and use vendor systems.

CS:  So what does auto-branding entail?

RK:  Auto-branding means that a brand owner can rez a vendor, assign it to his/her brand, then take it to their inventory and give it to whoever they want… and once these people rez the vendor, it will  instantly auto-brand itself, eliminating the burden for an affiliate to sign up at the website and assign a brand on the website to their vendors. The brand can be set to two modes: open for affiliates, and open for selling. Open for affiliates means that affiliates can join the brand and rez your branded vendor, but they are not free to list thier own items in your brand. Open for sellers means that everybody who joins the brand will automatically be allowed to list their items too. However we have found out that people don't actually use the latter option, so I guess we will  eliminate it at some point. The brand owner always has the right to choose which people can list their items in their brand.

CS:  So all I have to do is just recieve and rez a vendor to promote a friend's brand? That's it?

RK:  Yes. Another new feature is that the vendors allow you to measure the traffic passing in front of them. This is an extremely useful feature for mall renters, as they can know for sure how many people really do pass by their vendors. The people who use our vendors are very grateful for this feature.

CS:  Tell me more about the options available to people interested in using branding.

RK:  The whole metaBRAND concept is pretty new. Very few people currently know about it. First of all, metaBRANDS could be suited for both a one-person brand, or a team of designers could get together to form a strong brand and help their fans become their affiliates. Branding is a complete affiliate program where brand owners and designers can list thier items in a single brand , create a completely customised vendor, and set a motivating commission for their affiliates. On the brand owner and designer's side, the brand is a very flexible entity. A brand owner can always know exactly how many affiliates have joined the brand, who they are, where their vendors are located, and of course how many sales are occuring through that brand. They can manage the brand affiliates and resellers and even customise the look and contents of the brand even if there are hundreds of affiliated vendors out there already. All of the vendors on the grid will update within a few hours. As for affiliates, metaBRANDS is also a new concept in SL. It allows affiliates to search for a brand relevant to their land – a brand that sells relevant items, so that they can join it and resell for the commission. So, a band is basically a one-stop shop for affiliates and content creators looking for affiliates. At metaLIFE we believe in results oriented rewarding, and the system is created around this value as well.

CS:  How does the commission work?

RK:  If a content creator is selling his own items at his own store via our tools, we charge nothing. It's free to use the system. We take commission only if the sale was made somewhere else across the network, and we share this commission with the affiliates who helped with the sale – for example, if they rezzed your vendor at their land to resell your items.

CS:  So what commission does metaLIFE recieve on the sale of items sold through their system?

RK:  Currently, for grid-wide sales that are not from personally owned vendors, metaLIFE takes 10% commission. Affiliates used to also get a 10% commission, but recently we launched a new feature enabling our merchants to set the commission rate for their affiliates. This system works like a charm in-world for all the affiliate sales. Lots of people have moved with their brands to metaLIFE since the introduction of this feature, and lots more have joined those brands as affiliates reselling for them. Brand owners and affiliates love the new customisable commission system, but the web part was confusing them. So, we made it very simple for them and simply stopped taking commissions for web sales altogether, leaving the commissions work only for the in-world affiliate sales. These two improvements combined are empowering both merchants and affiliates to achieve their goals, in a very easy to manage fashion.

CS:  Could you give some examples?

RK:  Well, We currently have a few different sectors – for fashion, building, gadgets, art and so on – where some energetic and connected people are working to create consolidating brands which feature and invite some high quality content creators to list thier content, making it a very encouraging environment for both home shoppers and affiliates wanting to resell. Some brands that have up to 40 designers listing items in it. We also noticed with brands that some people use it simply for shoppng at home with their friends – they just take a branded vendor and rez it in their homes to browse and shop with their friends, and if their friends buy something, they will get some commission from the sale.

VENDOR FEATURES

I asked Robbie to rez one of the vendors so that I could investigate its features. He rezzed several, all customised to the brand owner's own preferences.

TRAFFIC MONITORING

RK:  The new vendor is capable of using a sensor to keep track of the traffic that passes near it, and the statistics for each vendor can be browsed on the graphs on the website. This is a feature that is very popular and can make a huge difference to the sales that a merchant would recieve, as well as ensuring that tier fees are not wasted on mall spots in empty sims.

CUSTOMISATION

RK:  Customization of a branded vendor is done via the metaLIFE website. Just assign the texture that you want to be shown on the front and back, and for the logo and buttons, and every vendor assigned to the brand will change to your assigned textures too. The graphics are done via the web but the vendor is moddable in-world also, so you can really be creative with how you want the design of your own vendors.

I visited the site and found the texture templates for the vendor, modifying them and uploading them back to the website. After creating my brand, I reset my vendor and was happy to see the new graphics appear on my new metaLIFE vendor. Although the website navigation for this task was a little confusing, I managed to get customised textures onto my branded vendor within ten minutes.

SEARCHING FOR ITEMS

CS:  So how would a resident be able to search for items?

RK:  Just click the search button and enter your keyword in public chat, and the vendor will search metaLIFE for relative items. This brand here will search the whole of metaLILFE but you can brand your vendor so that only items within your brand are searchable via that vendor.

I clicked the search button and typed "alien" into local chat.

CS:  alien
metaVENDOR: Displaying results for 'alien'

The vendor panels changed, showing all of the items available on the  metaLIFE website that corresponded to the term "alien". I clicked on the arrow buttons and browsed through the pages. The vendor was incredibly responsive, considering the lag in my sim.

RK:  When you use the vendor, it will pay attention to you for a few seconds so that other people can't interfere with your search.

To illustrate the point, Robbie clicked on the vendor and the following message appeared in local chat;
[6] metaVENDOR: Currently Coke Supply is using the metaVENDOR, please try few seconds later

FLAGGING INAPPROPRIATE ITEMS

RK:  There is a system for reporting items. If you take a look, you will see a flag icon in the upper right corner of the vendor. Using it, you can flag innapropriate items, but on the other hand this vendor might also be used in adult areas. So, the vendor has a mode to display adult content, so that people can decide if they want adult items to appear or not. However, the adult mode will not turn on if the vendor is on regular land. We safeguard against that. It will still allow adult items to be show but you will not be able to enable the adult content unless you move it to adult rated land.

COMMENTING ON ITEMS

RK:  There is a comment button and a read comments button. If you click the comments button, it will display the most recent comments for that item left by other residents.

Robbie clicked on the comment button and the following text appeared in public chat for the  item in question;

[6] metaVENDOR: 'i dont like it' by Basil Beattie
RK:  Now, if you click the add comments button, you then have a chance to add your own comment to the item by typing in public chat. Try it now

I did as instructed, and typed the following message.

CS:  i love it
[6] metaVENDOR: Comment successfully posted

After clicking the 'read comments' button again, the following text appeared in public chat, showing that the input was successfully recorded by the system;

[6] metaVENDOR: 'i dont like it' by Basil Beattie
[6] metaVENDOR: 'i love it' by Coke Supply

CS:  Wow I guess if there's 100 comments, I am in for some serious spam! :s
RK:  We limit the number of comments we will show. I think we only show the last 10. I would have to check. This feature was designed a long time ago!

AFFILIATE VENDORS

The time had come to test the affiliate system and see how it all worked. I asked a friend if he would help me, Christian Sandell, and we teleported over to his land to set up the vendor.

CS:  OK, let's do a test with this system. I want to set the price of these avatars to 100 lindens and then give the vendor to a friend, and then we will find a victim to buy one of the avatars and see how it all works
RK:  I can be your victim Once you have set up your branded vendor, take it to your inventory. But don't take a copy of it – take the original. When you send it to Christian and he rezzes it here, it will then still be a branded vendor. This way, you do all of the hard work, not your affiliates

After setting up the vendor, we went to Chris's land and handed him the vendor. He rezzed it, and we waited a few moments for it to start up. Then, Robbie purchased a copy of my product, sold through the "Alien Planet" brand.

RK:  I got the delivery. OK now Chris, you can check your commission. Please click on the logo of the vendor. You should have recieved an IM saying that you recieved a commission of 10 lindens.
ChS: Yes I recieved the IM.
RK:  OK, you can cash it out right here – just click on the vendor's logo and choose the withdraw option. You can check the balance of your metaLIFE account via any metaLIFE vendor in Second Life this way.
CS:  Doesn't Chris need to open an account with metaLIFE to recieve his money?
RK:  No.
CS:  Thats what I suspected – You really have made a great system!

Chris clicked the Alien Planet logo and selected the withdraw option from the blue menu, which asked him to type the amount of the withdrawal into public chat.

ChS: 10
ChS: Cool, got 10L. Now whose 10L is it?
CS:  its yours chris lol
ChS: Cool!
ChS: Where's the item delivered from?
RK:  From Coke's metaLIFE box. I guess that proves the system works well as an affiliate system – and I believe it was pretty easy for Chris to join as an affilaite of your brand
CS:  Yes, he doesn't even know that he just became an affiliate! It was that easy!
RK:  If you wanted to, you can sell both of your items under the same brand, and other people could rez your branded vendors to sell both of your items, for a commission that you set. And every vendor on the grid will get updated with the new products as you add them. And of course, your vendors are completely modifiable so that you can both style it however you wish. If you use the general unbranded vendor, you can search all metaLIFE items via it. We have many now – I believe over 20 or 30 thousand. So, you can search the entire metaLIFE website, without ever leaving Second Life. Please take a copy.
CS:  will Chris get commission from that???
RK:  Sure.
CS:  cool! I want one too!
RK:  I believe you already have one, Coke. If you look inside your inventory you should find the original.
CS:  If someone bought an item from the Alien Planet brand, does the money all go to me or is it shared between everyone selling within the brand? Or, does it just go to the person who made the item?
RK:  If the vendor is branded, then the money goes to 1) The item creator, 2) The vendor owner (the affiliate), 3) The brand owner/creator, and 4) MetaLIFE.
CS:  Ah, so it's split 4 ways?
RK:  Certain parts might be set to zero. If the vendor is not branded, then the money goes to 1) The content creator, 2) The vendor owner, and 3) MetaLIFE. If a brand is being managed, the brand owners will want some share for the work they are doing, but that will be a thing for negotiation between the brand owner and the designer.
ChS: I have to tinker with this and see how it works
RK:  sure Chris, let me know if I can give you a more detailed demo, or at least answer your questions once you have them.
ChS: So, I would need a server box to deliver the items?
RK:  Yes, you can get it from your vendor. There is a metaTOOLS button at the top of the vendor to recieve your box. Just click on it and choose the vendor option. There are several versions of vendors available, and of course the box for putting your items into as well.

All in all, Chris and myself concluded that the new metaLIFE vendors were a remarkable and very valuable marketing tool for our products. With the commission system, the distribution of our wares throughout Second Life will be made much easier, with affiliates willing to rez these vendors on their land for free in exchange for sales commission, as opposed to demanding tier fees, which of course is one of the reasons and a very strong motivating factor in selecting this system for the distribution of our products. The system is fast, efficient, flawless, versatile, very powerful and holds huge potential for any merchant, large or small.

Since writing this article, I have already recieved sales notifications of my alien avatar from other metaLIFE vendors within Second Life. I may never meet the people that helped me sell my work. I have no idea who got the commission or where the avatars were sold (although I could find out if I were not so lazy), but I would not have recieved those sales if it were not for the metaLIFE system. I will definitely adopt this vendor system as my primary distribution tool in future.

Looking back, I only wish that I had discovered metaLIFE sooner. Robbie and his team have made an amazing system.