Why buy an island when you can buy a planet? Entropia vs. Second Life in China

From techcrunch:

Virtual world Entropia, which combines chatting with friends and blowing up aliens, announced their expansion into China through a deal with Beijing’s Cyber Recreation Development Corp (CRD) over a year in the making. The CRD is supported by Beijing’s Municipal government and intended to promote and develop investment in “cyber recreation” in China. The company says Second Life was also in the running for the deal.

Entropia is described as a cross between World of Warcraft and Second Life. However, they also have real world banks (5) who have spend $404,000 in banking licenses, as well as a real world ATM cash card by Mastercard so that users can transfer funds in and out of the virtual world.

CRD has high hopes: "David Liu, CEO of CRD, envisions an Entropia utopia. He expects the partnership to bring 10,000 work-at-home, pollution-free job opportunities to China."



http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/30/entropias-virtual-world-comes-to-china/