In light of yesterday’s events (Hookers in Istania), I have decided to look into SL’s prostitution and escorting economy. I find that the demand for VR prostitution and escorting in Second Life are very interesting issues from the perspective of an economist. How does the industry make money? What marketing techniques do they use? How does Second Life’s interface affect the business cycle. Before the hooker’s where expelled yesterday from Istania I had a chance to talk to them about their business associates and employers.

Exotic dancers Rachel and Zimmy work for a SL company called Club XTC Elite. According to Rachel, “I can make around 2000 Lindens a day on average.” I asked Zimmy more about her SL employer and she told me, “XTC has about 25 dancers working for them, and their own island.” That is 50,000 Lindens per day (estimated).

I’m sure people wonder who is really behind the mask. For all we know, one of these dancers could very well be a man. Rachel and Zimmy both claim to be college students and girls. Zimmy goes to UCLA, and Rachel goes to Texas A&M. Marketing and Business Supply Chain majors respectivley. These stories (if they are true) make sense. Two intelligent college students in business majors trying to bring in the Lindens on SL. Rachel even calimed to have a boyfriend in RL. If these two SL hookers are telling the truth, it is great insight into what kind of people get into this business into SL. These people are not necessarily in a lower socio-economic group like their counter-parts in RL. “I do this job just to get Lindens for clothes in SL,” says Rachel, “It saves me a lot of money from shopping in real life.”

Second Life’s features allow XTC to have virtual ads almost anywhere. And a query for XTC retrieved multiple XTC affiliated locations. XTC is one of many producers in this particular market as well.It would be interesting to see a report on the economy in general of Second Life.

“There is a very high demand for our business in Second Life.”
—Rachel