In the future, a cyber economy can and will develop into the main economy for the world, and eventually, it will take over the current economy as we know it.

"Going Global"

This is how the world will look in the future, according to two researchers in a new book, which carries the title "Going Global: Key questions for the 21st century." The two researchers claim that, in the future we will experience more people in the virtual world, where games such as "Second Life" are to be blamed. All these changes happen as the line between work and spare time is narrowed down due to the fact that people are slowly realising the income opportunities of the Internet. To back up this fact, statistics show that more than 100.000 Chinese people make their living by playing the MMPORG (Massively-Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) World of Warcraft, and an even more evident fact is the big cash flow in the game of Second Life.This is explained by one of the books authors' Michael Moynagh:

"The homepage has already reared the first millionaire in the real world. A Chinese businessman already has 60 people employed to take care of his investments in Second Life."

At the Danish company Innovation Lab, Chief Analyst, Jens Roland, believes that the two researchers could be right in their prediction of the future. He has worked a lot with virtual worlds and can describe a bunch of different job opportunities available on the Internet:

"Mainly a lot of people with a low income would be able to make their living by using the online media, but in principle you could earn money on anything. The virtual worlds forms a foundation which makes the impossible possible . even if we are talking a bouncer, a psychologist or even a police officer. Nearly any service which is performed in real life could be offered in the virtual world."

Jens Roland goes on to point out that a whole new virtual economy is developing, which the two authors of the book also underline, and they hint that the virtual economy would be able to replace the traditional real-life economy in the long run. Of course, some disproves are to be found among the researchers in the world, and one of these is senior researcher at the danish institute of futurology, Anders Bjerre, who concludes that a market for revenue is to be found in MMPORG's, but at the same time, he thinks that an upper limit is to be reached in this development of earning money online:

"The use of the Internet is growing massively and in many ways, but the play universe has it limits. Most people who enter a hobby-world doesn't do it with money as their only interest in view."

Anders Bjerre, on the other hand concludes that most companies develop IT-systems as a part of their firm, but at the same time aim it towards the real world - Among others, this is the thing which happens when ordering a plane ticket, then taking a holiday.