ExitReality is a new Virtual World Platform (refer to AI 70) that has the ambition to rapidly convert existing 2D Internet into 3D Internet. The implications of moving from open systems to closed systems far faster than anyone expected could destroy the core business of Google which is dependent upon open systems to generate ad revenues.
The following details have been extracted from Virtual World News.
ExitReality announced today the launch of the public beta for its browser-based virtual world--or rather its browser-based interface for viewing the Web as a virtual world along with all the virtual worlds and 3D content scattered across it. When Founder Danny Stefanic explained what the company had been doing, I joked that they were aiming to be the Google of 3D. He demured that comparing anyone to Google can never really be accurate, but the analogy still sticks in my head.
"One of the major changes is the focus on search," Stefanic said of the developments since the launch of ExitReality's private beta. "A lot of people didn't realize that we actually had a giant search engine that had been collecting all the COLLADA, VRML, and open standards content into a repository that we've been building for the last three years. We're bringing that to the forefront so that people can explore all the amazing virtual worlds and 3D content that people have been developing over the last ten years or so."
After downloading a small plug-in (3.5MB) for IE, Firefox, Chrome, or with experimental support for Safari on Windows (Mac support is planned), users can choose to view existing 2D pages, like those on social networks, in 3D with no extra work from the site owner. Developers wanting a more custom experience can change the 3D world around, add content from the repository or design their own, or develop a fully customized 3D experience linked to from a button on the 2D website. Users can also, though, explore the 3D content that, as Stefanic puts it, the Web is littered with.
"Tons and tons of it, and exciting stuff too, not just tables and chairs: theme parks and activities and all that. There's all this great stuff that we want to bring to the forefront. You go to Google to search for text or video. They index all the file types. 3D has a set of file types that we're bringing out," he explained. "I call it the long tail of 3D content. You can search for just about any term and get results. That just gives you an indication of the amount of content that's out there. There has been a lot of work out there in 3D, not just virtual worlds."
That content wasn't all initially meant for multi-user access, but the ExitReality plugin lets users repurporse it, turning old architecture walkthroughs into new virtual homes. But Stefanix still looks at that mass of content as a way to bring new users into a 3D Web. ExitReality gives users access to the existing 3D content, but Stefanic's hope is that the fact that ExitReality turns 2D sites into 3D spaces will spur users to create new areas as well. For ExitReality, anyone who has a website has a stake in 3D.
"If you ask people what do they want their 3D website to look like, most people or companies would just say, 'I don't know where to start,'" said Stefanic. "But if they have a site out there and ask them how they want it changed, people are rarely short of opinion. It's a much easier way to get people into 3D. When we launch, we'll be turning every single web page into 3D. A percentage of Web page owners will take that opportunity to enhance it for their users. It doesn't have to be the whole Web at once, but the good news is that the whole Web will be 3D. There's the compelling content and then also this stakeholding in it without having to lift a finger."
Content and Money for Developers
The 3D content of ExitReality (or that just exists on the Web) exists in its spaces in the same way a YouTube page is embedded on our own news site. Users can drag and drop a couch from the inventory of indexed content, including Google Warehouse, into their 3D Myspace pages, and it's linked back to the main couch in the repository. If the creator changes that couch, all the instances are changed as well.
In that way, users don't really own the virtual items. ExitReality, says Stefanic, isn't interested in the virtual goods model of monetization.
"We focus on that not through artificial scarcity, like virtual goods, but through traffic," he explained. "As you know on the Web artificial scarcity for digital goods is very difficult to maintain. You might think of iTunes or back in the old days of paying for text on news sites. In the old days you charged people to see text or video or images or to download music. A lot of problems came with people copying content. 3D will go through the same machinations, I think. We try to protect 3D content, which is fine because you want to get value, but static content is hard to protect. That's why the Web has turned to service models. That's where I see 3D moving to the future. They might be virtual good services are all types of things."
Instead of buying and selling 3D content, though some people still may, Stefanic expects users to serve it. For example, Stefanic showed me a bookcase. Every title was generated from keywords on the 2D website it was embedded in (or listed interests from a social networking site) and linked directly to Amazon. If a user created a particularly compelling bookcase, he or she could add their Amazon partner code and advertise the books themselves instead of selling the virtual shelves.
A similar process can be used with more traditional advertising. Stefanic says ExitReality is dedicated to existing Web standards--for example, most scripting is done in Java--and supports traditional ad networks like Yahoo or DoubleClick. Keywords from the 2D page can populate advertising spaces in 3D, with objects supporting all IAB sizes. Developers can also embed advertising in items or create branded virtual goods that users carry with them to their new spaces. But for sites looking to simply create more traffic for their existing advertisers, Stefanic thinks 3D can still be a boost.
"When people meet and have common interests, they talk," said Stefanic. "That leads to increased session times to not just minutes, but hours. Site owners aren't trying to attract audiences from elsewhere. They're addressing them where they already are. I'm not saying replace the 2D site, but 3D is just another media type alongside all of it. You might use text, video, and 3D and socialization. And 3D offers more opportunities. You might get 5% of your user base participating in the 3D space, and that's great. But we're not saying the 3D element replaces the website. You just flick into 3D like you do to go to another page, but we have a lot of aspects that drive traffic back to the 2D because that's where most of it is."
Attracting Users and Money for ExitReality
Those are the benefits Stefanic sees for site owners and 3D developers. For users, he says, the benefits are more fun, engaging, immersive experiences. I pointed out that, so far, that hasn't attracted a mainstream audience (at least in the older segments) to virtual worlds. ExitReality is hoping that participation from partners from the 2D Web and viral engagement will help change that.
"Come launch, there will be some video sites that provide enhanced experiences," he explained. "The partners we've got will be pushing ExitReality to their user base, and they get over 50 million unique users/month. So there's some real corporate push. And we've increased the viral levels as well, so we get the consumer word-of-mouth push."
The first announced launch partner is the video site Blinkx, which, according to Quantcast, draws roughly 36 million page views per month. ExitReality spokespeople say even bigger partners and brands are on their way in addition to the private beta launch with Carl's Jr. and Hardees. I haven't seen what the Blinkx/ExitReality experience looks like, but Stefanix says the virtual world supports interactive Flash for synchronized video viewing, which sounds promising.
On the viral side, his hope is that social network users will want to customize their 2D profiles into 3D lounges. When they do, a button will appear on their 2D profie prompting visitors to install the ExitReality plugin and visit them in 3D.
Importantly, ExitReality is also launching with an eye towards global audiences. It's public beta supports 12 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, and German.
"That's very important for us because 3D as a media is language neutral," he said. "Text or video doesn't spread around the world as much as photographic content does because you need to understand the langauge. Our search engine has been providing us with the content from all around the world, but you don't need to speak Portuguese to appreciate the beautiful cathedral someone has built."
Ultimately, though, Stefanic says the use cases will be different for each user. His hope is that the wealth of content available will give them enough motivation to download the plugin. Some will install it because a particular brand or site has an interesting space (developers can create spaces hosting 50 users per instance with 2,500 users per server), some are already using it on an intranet for enterprise collabration, and some will just want to connect in a 3D Facebook.
"Each user will have their own reasons," he said." Some of the sites that will be pushing it out there will be saying, 'We're a reliable site and we have a compelling piece of content.' The good thing is that it gives you access to millions and millions of pieces of cotnent. You wouldn't download a plugin for just one piece of content if it wasn't really compelling."
That's key for ExitReality, because the more users it gets, the more money it brings in. The service will monetize, again with the Google comparison, on sponsored search results.
"The benefit for us is that the more widely distributed ExitReality is, the better it is for us," said Stefanic. "We have a focus on search. If I click on Search, some of the featured locations are restaurants like Hardees and Carl's Jr. You got natural results and sponsored results, just like Google. And one of the cool things is that search is available on every page you visit."
In all, Stefanic hopes that drawing on the history of 3D, virtual worlds, and virtual reality, not just this cycle, combined with the success of the Web itself will galavanize users, developers, and brands.
"The ideas of 3D are not new," he concluded. "There's just never been this connector to bring it together for a mass market to make everyone a stakeholder. I can't think of anything more exciting than people who built this content a couple years ago and didn't get traffic, all of a sudden getting a massive amount of traffic. And that's what the search engine is going to do."
