There has been a fair amount of buzz in Virtual World circles around a product in beta called HiPiHi. Dubbed "The Chinese Second Life", I wanted to get a taste for what this thing is all about, is it a Real Cash Economy (RCE), what they are attempting to accomplish and how they intend to grow the Virtual World brand.

I was fortunate enough to come in contact with Head of Marketing at HiPiHi, Cindy Jiang who explains HiPiHi as "a China-based global 3D virtual world." She goes on to say they "have been working lately to fine-tune our platform to make it more stable, to provide more powerful and easy-to-use self-creation functionalities, and to create a more immersive and interactive online 3D community where users of HiPiHi can swap ideas, perspectives and stories to maximize their 3D virtual world experiences.".

When pressed on how they plan to differentiate themselves from Second Life Cindy comments "HiPiHi does have some similarities with Second Life. However, the fundamental difference is that we are targeting different values and cultures. HiPiHi has made creativity a much simpler process by using pre-fabricated objects, and for sophisticated users, they can use the advanced setting and tools to build complicated and customized objects."

It is a very intriguing and attractive idea to me to simplify the user build tools. One of the large drawbacks to becoming a mass appeal product for Second Life has always been the learning curve. Take that away and you theoretically have allotted more growth potential. But, as I log in it becomes glaringly apparent I cannot read Chinese. "We are planning to release an international version in the near future, which aims at another double byte market in Asia. We'll reveal details soon." explains Cindy.

Real Cash Economy is an aspect of HiPiHi that appears to be up in the air. Whether the developer wants it and whether the Chinese Government will allow it are both in question. "We haven't decided yet whether there will be an in-world currency as in Second Life. It's sure that we are making strong economic policies to promote the business transactions in the virtual world, which will comply with relevant law and regulations in China." Cindy continues, "At this phase, we emphasize the inspiration of the creativity and accelerating the prosperity of the virtual world. When the demands from the residents rise, the in-world transactions will increase accordingly." At this point talk turns to Entropia Universe, the CRD and how what they are doing affects HiPiHi. "We think Entropia and HiPiHi are not competitors. We can partner instead of competing to explore market opportunities for virtual worlds in China."

This leads to my next question, how do you explain this Virtual World concept to those who have no clue what it is? Virtual Worlds and Metaverses are both very new to the average Western citizen and even moreso to those in Asia. "In light of the fact that the 3D Internet is still a newborn baby in China, it will take some time for people to understand the 3D Internet and virtual world technology innovation and development. But we can see the trend is taking place. With increasing broadband penetration and affordable bandwidth cost in place, as well as increased digital ad spending in anticipation of 2008 Olympic Games, more and more companies and business organizations have realized the value and the potential power of the virtual world in China. We see a significant growth potential for emerging digital platforms such as virtual worlds." The mention of the Olympic Games strikes me particularly. This is the second time this week I have heard reference to how Virtual Worlds will interact with the 2008 Games. In fact, the CRD (Read The CRD, Dotman, Entropia and My Spaceship) is located right next to several Olympic Venues. It will be interesting to see what they plan and how it plays out globally.

As for who HiPiHi hopes will enjoy their product? "People who enjoy the challenge, full of innovation spirit, have ability to create and share, are those we want to attract as customers. They are all smart, well educated and understand the value of the 3D Internet very well. HiPiHi should be a perfect platform for those people to explore the possibility of the virtual life by creating, exchanging, entertaining and socializing." says Cindy.

HiPiHi Founder and CEO, Hui Xu will be speaking at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose, CA - October 10-11, 2007. RCE Universe is a media partner of this event.