Your comment fails. Many companies jumped on the hype bandwagon but did not fully realize what they were getting themselves into. To have a presence in SL, one must dedicate a lot of time to it. A company must have something that will A. attract residents to their location and B. keep them coming back. How is it that so many no name clothing designers are well known in SL yet I never seen anyone wear or talk about what's cool at the American Apparel or Adidas locations? SL is not a billboard and requires much more effort than putting up a graphic with smiling people pretending to enjoy said product.

SL began as an MMO world created by it's users. So your swipe at users using SL for their own means is a complete lack of understanding of where SL came from. Without these users, SL would not be where it is today. Where do you get off thinking that SL can and should only be used as a business tool? Do you even know about SL grid? These are business/education based grids totally separate from the SL world. Very viable for businesses who actually see an advantage in having one (like collaborative products and virtual meetings, etc).

Anyway, this whole article screams fail. SL stands on it's own and is supported by it's users. It is probably the most creative (both in practice and potential) environment we have in the world today. SL does not need hype to stay afloat. Increasing user concurrency is proof of this.