Infopirate.org

In Japan, the global financial crisis seems to have singled out some of the world's best-known and best-managed companies for an especially bloody thrashing.

Consider Toyota Motor Corp., whose stock has lost almost two-thirds of its value since February of last year. Like many Japanese exporters, Toyota has been doubly clobbered this fall, first by collapsing consumer demand in the United States and Europe, and then by the exploding value of the yen against the dollar and the euro.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article... 

Mazda will be unveiling its Hakaze concept vehicle to the citizens of Second Life later this month in an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Toyota's SCION brand. One question remains: Is it gas, electric, or bit-torrent?

Companies as varied as Toyota, Dell, Sears, and Adidas have all established bulkheads in the 3-D virtual world called "Second Life." Is this influx of brands an exciting precursor of how we'll be conducting business very soon, or the ultimate exercise in corporate flat-footedness?

The main Toyota presence in Second Life to date is Scion City - a heavily urban designed island with a slightly futuristic feel to it. Set the sun to ’sunset’ to get the best feel for the island.

Greg Verdino of MarketingProfs.com has visited the Second Life builds of Aloft, American Apparel, Toyota, Reebok and Telus, finding them all empty:“Welcome to Second Life, marketers. This is the vibrant virtual community that the business press is trumpeting as the new, new thing? The metaverse that companies are tripping over each other to infiltrate?Linden, we [...]