Linden Lab (Linden Research, Inc.), founded in 1999 and based in San Francisco, is best known for launching Second Life in 2003, one of the earliest and most expansive user-created virtual worlds featuring a real-money economy and extensive creator freedoms.
In 2017, the company launched Sansar, a next-generation social VR platform designed to enable creators to build, share and monetise immersive 3D experiences via an intuitive creation toolkit and cross-platform access (Windows PC and VR headsets).
Sansar supports detailed avatars with facial lip-syncing and motion capture, operates a dedicated virtual goods store, and provides drag-and-drop world-building tools. It streamlines VR experience creation and distribution while offering monetisation routes similar to Second Life’s business model.
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CountryUnited States
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Technological areaAugmented RealityCloud / EdgeExtended Reality (XR)StandardsVirtual RealityVirtual Worlds
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Value Chain Segment:Full solutions supplier (e.g., supplier of a virtual world product)Software provider
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Products and/or services:
- Sansar platform: A social VR environment originally built by Linden Lab for creators to host multiplayer experiences, live events, branded spaces, games, art exhibits, and virtual commerce across VR and desktop
- Avatars & Social Interaction: High-fidelity avatars with speech-driven facial animations, full-body IK motion capture, and expressive tools for realistic social VR engagement
- Creator Tools & Storefront: Drag-and-drop editor, 3D asset marketplace, and monetisation pathways enabling world creators to earn via virtual goods and experiences
- Drag‑and‑drop editor & instancing architecture: Allows creators to reuse assets and automatically scale immersive experiences to multiple concurrent users
- Content Monetisation: Sansar included a virtual currency (Sansar dollars) and built an economy for creators to sell fashion items, clothing, and environments with royalty-like mechanisms