The founder of Artificial Life, Inc, Eberhard Schoneburg, says Hong Kong is a good launchpad and test market for his Virtual Girlfriend mobile game

Artificial Life, Inc, a Nasdaq-listed software maker headquartered in Hong Kong, may have found the technological solution to lonely hearts. 

Eberhard Schoneburg, founder and chief executive of Artificial Life, Inc, has created a third generation or 3G mobile game centred on a virtual girlfriend called Vivienne. Voted by mobile giant Ericksson as the Best Mobile Game globally for 2004, Vivienne is an innovative three dimensional figure who can move through 18 different settings like a restaurant, shopping mall and airport. She is also a superwoman who can converse on 35,000 topics ranging from philosophy to movies and sculpture in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish and Italian.

Soon to be launched in Hong Kong, Vivienne is "the product of computerised voice, streaming video and text messages". Users can interact with her and other game characters on their mobile phones by either sending an SMS message or chatting with her in real time. 

"We saw a gap in the mobile market and realised there was no real 3G product out there. We took a great risk and spent two years to develop the Virtual Girlfriend. Luckily, it has turned out well," explained Mr Schoneburg, a former professor of artificial intelligence in a German university.

Ideal base in Asia

The German entrepreneur who founded Artificial Life in Boston in 1994, set up the Hong Kong headquarters in 2002 as he was convinced that Asia is a leader in mobile applications.
 
"Hong Kong is a good base for our Asia-wide activities, a big market and a good test ground for our launch. It is a very competitive market with six mobile operators for 6 million people. Japan and Korea may be leading markets for mobiles right now but Hong Kong is catching up very fast because of the competition.

"There is a good talent pool in Hong Kong along with a couple of companies which can do good animation. Craftsmanship in 3D and the detailed level of production among local people are also good," he added.

The Virtual Girlfriend, soon to be joined by a Virtual Boyfriend, will also be launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and several European countries with 3G later this year.

Publicity for the Virtual Girlfriend has been positive and plentiful. "We have been on the front page news very early in the game, and this has snowballed and taken off worldwide. It just shows there is a demand for a virtual life-form that is fun, intelligent and innovative," Mr Schoneburg said.

Related links
Artificial Life, Inc