The Laguna Beach on MTV

Companies are flocking to market themselves in game-like and usually three-dimensional online virtual universes, but the long-term shape of this fledgling industry is far from clear.

“We’re pretty much where the internet was in the mid-1990s,” says Steve Prentice, a vice-president at technology research group Gartner, echoing a view held by participants at the Virtual Worlds conference in Manhattan earlier this year.

Joe Laszlo, analyst at JupiterKagan, says the virtual worlds are “like the early days of the Victoria’s Secret webcast”.

“It was crappy, but hot, so everybody went.”

MTV executives cite their television-show spinoffs, Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills, which have attracted 600,000 registered users since they were launched six months ago.

SAN FRANCISCO –(Business Wire)– In the ultimate form of personal self-expression, fans of MTV’s “The Hills,” “Laguna Beach” and Logo’s “Noah’s Arc” can now capture the ‘look’ of their favorite characters by going online and purchasing clothing and accessories worn by their favorite cast members or featured on the shows. Today marks the immediate launch of two new online stores for MTV and Logo fans, both of which are powered by Delivery Agent, Inc., the leader in shopping-enabled programming for television shows, motion pictures, sports, publishing and music videos.