She's made her first million....er, virtually

Last updated at 10:30 28 November 2006


Millionaires usually make their money in banking, playing the stock market or in big business.

Ailin Graef has changed all that. The former Chinese language teacher has just joined the millionaire's club - but is the first person to do so thanks to profits from a virtual world.

Ms Graef has built up a massive property empire in Second Life, an online 3D world where users live and socialise as they would in reality.

Her online equivalent (known as an avatar), Anshe Chung, buys large blocks of lands, improves them by adding housing and then sells them to other users for a handsome profit.

Since joining the game in 2004 she has amassed a fortune of almost 300million Linden dollars (the game's currency). Uniquely, these dollars can be exchanged into real US dollars at online currency exchanges. With the rate at around L$275 to US$1, she has become a millionaire.

Although she lives near Frankfurt in Germany, Ms Graef has set up an office in Wuhan, China, employing ten programmers to help 'develop' the online land she later sells to other users.

Last year, there were 70,000 Second Life members but now 1.6million people have downloaded the software and created an avatar.

And Ms Graef is not alone in seeing the business potential in Second Life - one member who created and sold a popular game within the world called Tringo recently agreed a deal for it with Nintendo.

Ben Camm-Jones, news editor at Web User magazine, said: "Up until now, when people have made a bit of extra cash on Second Life they've seen it as a bonus. But to earn a living from it is quite extraordinary."

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