I came cross the latest news at AOL that it is going to set up an area in Second Life. It is a project that called AOL Pointe and starting from 18th this month, AOL is accepting applications to participate in the beta test of AOL Pointe, the upcoming online virtual 3-D environment.

AOL Pointe will feature different sections, such as an amphitheater and an extreme sports park, in which the company plans to highlight AOL content and services like AOL Music, Moviefone, TMZ, and Lat34.com, as reported by InfoWorld.

This is a shrewd move by AOL. With the company positioned itself in providing the online services to consumers in the U.S., it seems that the creation of AOL Pointe will be a value-added and should be considered as a profit-center for AOL in the future. As I looked at the Economics Statistics of Second Life, the population, monthly spending power, and the transactions were huge and therefore, will be an ideal place for AOL to further conduct its merchandise sales there. In matter of fact, the way I see AOL, I believed it generate their revenues mainly from advertisements of merchandisers, commissions on merchandise sales, and fees from the listings on its directory. And therefore, AOL Pointe seems as another source of revenues for them on the Web.