What is Virtual Commerce (v-commerce)

Virtual reality, in a variety of implementations, is becoming more popular every day. Internet technology originally designed for education, information, and gaming is now three-dimensional, multifunctional, and morphing into loci for international economic activity. The virtual world population is quite immense. In Second Life alone, as of 2007, there was an estimated 3.1 million registered residents (Linden, 2007). There is also much user activity in Second Life with 1.4 million residents logged in within the last 60 days from March 25, 2009 (Second Life, 2009). In fact, the virtual world population is expected to reach 50 - 60 million by 2011 (Au, 2007). Of even greater interest is the revenue generated from virtual world activity. The worldwide virtual world economy is valued at approximately $1.8 billion (Dibbell, 2007).