The Virtual Economy

People may be pinching pennies in the real world, but the virtual economy seems to be booming. In virtual worlds like Second Life, for example, transactions are expected to reach half a billion US dollars this year – an increase of 39 percent. As people spend more time and money on virtual sites, companies are looking for ways to make it easier for them to transfer funds from brick and mortar banks to virtual ones.

Olga Kharif has been tracking this carefully. She’s a senior writer for Businessweek.com, and she joins us with more from Portland, Oregon.

Olga Kharif in BusinessWeek: "Virtual Currencies Gain in Popularity"

(Photo by Torley via Flickr/Creative Commons)