A major American life insurance company has taken a big step into the virtual world by setting up their own space on popular web-based community Second Life.

AvivaUSA spent nearly half a million dollars setting up their virtual 'island' and it is costing them roughly $3000 a year to maintain it. The hopes are that it will encourage younger and more tech-savvy people to get involved.

Second Life was launched in 2003 and combines aspects of other social networking sites with a video game interface. There are over 4 million users of the game throughout the world.

The company is hoping that the marketing value of the venture will pay for itself, with the added benefit that staff can use the site to interact without having to attend formal meetings.

Mike Bolz, chief information officer for AvivaUSA commented that, "We have always been fairly confident in the mission, We had a focused business plan. We had a targeted business strategy behind what we wanted to accomplish with the island."

"The potential there is huge, The power of this whole thing is amazing." He added.