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]

Ailin Graef originally roleplayed her Second Life character "Anshe Chung" similar to a character in a movie or novel, giving it certain traits and behaviours and not considering it an extension of her own personality. In 2005/2006 this distinction between "in character" and "out of character" became increasingly difficult for her when the roleplaying game evolved into a business with considerable real life impact. In late 2007 Ailin finally began to adopt "Anshe" as an artist name and accepted that people call her "Anshe" in real life.

Contents

[edit] Background

Before her internet fame, her multiple careers included German schoolteacher and escort. [5]"I started small with nothing," writes Anshe Chung in an e-mail, "and worked my way through five distinct careers... I started as a private entertainer, somebody people who are bored or lonely could seek out for company. When more familiar with the creation tools in Second Life, I began to design and sell my own fashion line."

According to Chung, she already created fortunes in purely virtual currency on other MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call, Star Wars Galaxies and Shadowbane,[6] 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.[7][8] The name "Anshe" was originally coined in Asheron's Call in December 1999.[6]

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.[9] She raised funds through event hosting, escorting,[3] erotic services,[10] teaching[11] and fashion design.

It has been reported that Ailin was originally introduced to the Internet in the early 1990s through her friendship with Prof. Wang Yu-Feng, the father of the Chinese Internet. In October 2007 she and her husband were found speaking at an official event commemorating the introduction of the Internet to China, which had been established 20 years ago with German help.

[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.[12] 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.[13]

According to Dr. James Cook of Linden Lab "Anshe adds significant value to Second Life".[14]

In February 2006 Ailin Graef legally incorporated "Anshe Chung Studios, Ltd." in Hubei, China with her husband and business partner, Guntram Graef,[15] 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"[15]

Meanwhile Anshe Chung's business employs more than 80 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 [16][17].

In September 2007 the Gladwyne Partners, who had previously funded the Electric Sheep Company, also obtained stake in the Anshe Chung Studios.

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.[18].

Since 2006 Ailin and her company have been active in IMVU, a 3D avatar chat. She has since been operating the largest currency exchange and content creation business for that platform with about half of the 100 top selling products in IMVU originating from her company in Wuhan, while a considerable amount of the remaining top sellers are said to be coming from people who were originally trained in her company. During Ailin's involvement with IMVU, that service's userbase has increased 50-fold, outgrowing Second Life in late 2007.

In 2007 Ailin Graef and the Anshe Chung Studios were chosen as a "New Champion of the World Economy" by the World Economic Forum, describing her company as a business with a major technical or economic impact and the potential to become a Fortune 500 company within the next 5 years.

Since 2005 Ailin Graef also owns a 30% share in Virtuatrade, a Pennsylvania based company operating the site SLExchange.com, a virtual goods trading site similar to eBay but specialized in Second Life items.

In July 2008 a new portal site called AnsheX [1] has become available, operated by her company in Wuhan. The new site is merging services, communities and currency exchanges of several monetized virtual worlds, attempting to bridge the gap between them.

Since 2007 Ailin has been reportedly involved in several successful real estate transactions in the real world in China and Germany.

[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.[19] 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".[20] 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,[21] 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."[22]

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.[20]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sloan, Paul (December 1, 2005). "The Virtual Rockefeller". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/12/01/8364581/index.htm?cnn=yes. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  2. ^ "My Virtual Life". Business Week. May 1, 2006. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  3. ^ a b Parloff, Roger (November 28, 2005). "FROM MEGS TO RICHES". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/11/28/8361953/index.htm. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  4. ^ http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19927&hed=Second+Life%25e2%2580%2599s+First+Millionaire
  5. ^ "Economy". Fortune Magazine. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/11/28/8361953/index.htm. Retrieved on 2005-11-28. 
  6. ^ a b "Press Kit - Anshe Chung". Anshe Chung Studios. November 27, 2006. http://www.anshechung.com/media/media_info.htm. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  7. ^ "Economy". Linden Lab. http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy.php. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  8. ^ "LindeX Market Data". Linden Lab. http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-market.php. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  9. ^ The Herald Profile: Anshe Chung Walker Spaight, The Second Life Herald, 2005-01-25. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  10. ^ "Anshe's kinky past revealed". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/anshes-kinky-past-revealed/2007/01/17/1168709794333.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. 
  11. ^ Diaz, Cristiano (aka Cristiano Midnight) (November 28, 2004). "Introducing The Chat History Interview - Anshe Chung". SL Universe. http://www.sluniverse.com/language/2004/11/introducing-chat-history-interview.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  12. ^ Why Anshe Chung is a Millionaire
  13. ^ The Virtual Rockefeller
  14. ^ Virtual goods, real income
  15. ^ a b "Anshe Chung Becomes First Virtual World Millionaire". Anshe Chung Studios. November 26, 2006. http://www.anshechung.com/include/press/press_release251106.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  16. ^ Samwer Brothers Take 10% Stake in Anshe Chung Studios
  17. ^ Echtes Geld fuer die Virtuelle Welt
  18. ^ Anshe Chung a Winner of the World's First Virtual Banking Licenses
  19. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (December 20, 2006). "Virtual magnate shares secrets of success". CNET. http://news.com.com/Virtual+magnate+shares+secrets+of+success/2008-1043_3-6144967.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. 
  20. ^ a b Behind the Anshe Chung DMCA complaint
  21. ^ Reuters, Adam (January 5, 2007). "Anshe Chung Studios cracks down on griefing photos". Reuters. http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/01/05/anshe-chung-studios-cracks-down-on-griefing-photos/. Retrieved on 2007-01-06. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshe_Chung"
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