Virtual World Credit Card

Interview with JP Mougin and Tyra Fierrens, co-founders of First Meta and Meta Card, the first in-world Credit Card."They came up with the underlying idea behind First Meta a few years ago - to provide financial services for the then-emerging phenomena of virtual economies at the end of 2006 when they decided to focus their efforts on Second Life. Back when the idea was forming, MMOG worlds were the general focus, but nothing was viable for what the original plan was, which was to provide a full suite of real financial services for virtual economies. In late 2006, they arranged a meeting with Cory Linden through a mutual friend, Thor Alexander, and talked about Second Life when Cory was able to come to Singapore. During that conversation, they realized that SL was the perfect environment for them to start in. They prepared for entry by setting up a real life company, hiring a management and technical team, rewrote their business plan, raised their first round of funding from investors, built their system and island and launched their first products at the end of July 2007. Those products are Meta Card and Meta Savings. Meta Card is an in-world credit card, accepted at various merchants. Instead of paying with your Linden balance, a resident can pay with an attached card which bills them just as a credit card does. The advantage would be the same as charging an item in real life, one main payment per month instead of many tiny payments. Customer and Merchant reception are meeting their expectations and Meta Card applications are increasing at a higher rate. Meta Savings as a banking entity still exists. After the Lindens reviewed First Meta’s business plan, instead of offering interest in Lindens, there are reward points for the average daily balance kept on account at Meta Savings. These reward points are awarded now instead of interest. Formerly, the interest was generated from the spread between their savings account interest and the interest they charge on the Meta Card.Future financial product offerings for First Meta involve commercial credit, equity financing, M&A advisory, and capital markets products. While virtual corporate entities suffer the same amount of risk as a virtual bank, those risks are known. Currently, First Meta has several risk management systems in place now which mirror RL risk management practices and they are developing their own risk management systems designed specifically for virtual economies using AI techniques. In closing, JP Mougin had this to say: "Our goal is to be the leading provider of financial services for virtual economies. We are a real company with 15 full-time staff and management team and an additional 10 solely in SL. We are well-funded by private investors. We will take whatever licensing or regulatory steps are necessary to continue to offer credible financial services in the virtual world. Our company registration documents and financial reporting are made publicly available in Singapore as First Meta Pte. Ltd. We have not experienced any runs on our savings accounts. Our Meta Card, which is our flagship product, is not affected by the new policy. Metacard only creates risk for us, not for our card holders or merchants. I think the net result of this new policy will be a strengthening of the virtual economy as it shakes out weaker or less credible players which will benefit all who participate in the virtual economy. We believe that a strong and credible financial services sector is one of the keys to the continued growth of the virtual economy. We want to provide some of that strength and credibility."