StartUpArabia

Mohamed Marwen Meddah | November 3, 2008 | View Comments

Share

Muxlim, the online Muslim social media community service, plans to launch “Muxlim Pal”, a Muslim-oriented virtual world pretty similar in principle to Second Life, complete with its own currency and culture.

The virtual world should be launched in a few weeks time and will allow, in addition to all the regular things that can be done in other virtual worlds, the opportunity to wear a hijab, and go to prayer rooms for example.

The service’s revenue model will be VIP accounts, virtual gifts, virtual furniture/clothes, themes/styles, profile applications, advertising, branded communities and physical merchandise like t-shirts.

Muxlim hopes that by launching a social networking sandbox tailored to the more than one billion Muslims throughout the world large companies such as Coca-Cola can be convinced to spend some of their vast marketing cash on advertising to this vast, yet nearly untapped cultural segment.

Muxlim Pal is meant to create an open community for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, enabling people from all over the world to explore Muslim culture. And while there will be religious spaces (as there are in Second Life), Muxlim Pal isn’t really designed to be a religious platform, it will be open to people who are religious and not religious.

Launched in December 2006 in Finland, Muxlim attracts 1.5 million unique visitors per month.

# Muxlim