Image via CrunchBase

Fellow crayonista and bald marketing brother, Greg Verdino and I spent a lot of time looking at virtual worlds over the past few years. Joe Jaffe claims that the two of us got our jobs at crayon due to our blogs, and it is safe to say that, had it not been for virtual worlds, Verdino and I may not have meet when we did (I am sure Greg is cursing the existence of virtual worlds and blogs at this point). :)

Much of my time spent speaking about virtual worlds as a viable marketing solution was defensive. Even now, when on panels or having conversations with agency folks, there is the occasional jab at Second Life; a jab that I feel the need to defend. While I am not as bullish on Second Life as I once was, I am still as insistent as ever about the future of virtual worlds, and their application as influential marketing vehicles.

A recent post over at Mashable spoke about how the incredibly popular, Cyworld would be shutting its doors in the US. I had a great deal of hope for Cyworld, but according to an article on Web 2.0 Asia, Cyworld had some major flaws--flaws that could would just not fly in the US market:

Cyworld didn't seem to have sharp strategies as to how to position their service (Was it Myspace or Habbo hotel?); They didn't localize the service very well; SK Telecom, the parent company, didn't "get it" yet still tried to put a grip on the business.

Other virtual worlds are still going strong and growing in the US (Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, Gaia Online, WeeWorld and others) but none has taken off to the same degree that Cyworld has in South Korea.

Perhaps the US is not just not ready. What do you think?