Metaversum, developer of Twinity, the virtual world made of real people and real places, is launching virtual Singapore on August 9^th with a big celebration of Singapore’s National Day.

Twinity extends a warm welcome to pioneering virtual Singapore residents from around the world. Prime retail and residential real estate is now available, so claiming your stake in virtual Singapore has never been easier. Explore the city, locate the perfect apartment, and make yourself at home.

Virtual Singapore is also open for business and the commercial opportunities are endless. Set up shop in a premium neighborhood or open a gallery, music venue, bar or restaurant. Show your allegiance to Singapore and welcome Twinizens from other parts of the virtual world to your home city.

Singapore is Twinity’s second international capital to launch after Berlin. Both cities are currently in public beta testing. The first city district of Singapore to open is the area around Orchard Road, where this year’s virtual NDP 09 celebrations will be held.

Visitors to Orchard Virtual can enjoy a multimedia extravaganza, including livestreams from the real NDP event and integrated multimedia content showcasing the city to the world, plus themed virtual items and special NDP competitions with exciting prizes. A centre stage will host a virtual performance of the NDP 09 theme song by Singapore’s electrifying band Electrico, as well as the NDP pledge moment to be held at 8:22 PM.

Twinity was supported by the multi-agency Interactive Digital Media R&D Programme Office (IDMPO), hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore.

Mr Dennis Sng, Programme Director, IDMPO said: “We are excited to see Twinity taking off. This is one of the Co-Space^TM projects that IDMPO supported last year. With Twinity, Singaporeans will have a whole new experience of National Day celebrations this year. Singaporeans living overseas can also participate in the celebrations through the virtual world.”

Co-Space^TM is defined as the next generation of the web where physical places coexist with dynamic, real-time virtual environments to provide users with the ability to process and manipulate information seamlessly between both the physical and virtual space.

Information about Metaversum and Twinity:

Metaversum develops and operates the 3D mirror world Twinity. The vision behind Twinity is to bring the real and the virtual world closer together by building realistic replicas of the world’s most vibrant cities in 3D. Berlin and Singapore have already launched in Twinity, with London set to follow soon. Twinity members can create a personal avatar, explore real cities virtually, move into a 3D home, chat with friends, work, get creative, or just have fun together.

Twinity offers businesses new ways of engaging with real people in real virtual cities. Through virtual shops and branded presences, inworld ad campaigns, product placements, and real and virtual sponsored events, Twinity lets you enter into a genuine, emotive dialog with your target group. Twinity is currently in public Beta and open for business. Founded in July 2006 and financed by leading venture capital firms, Metaversum has offices in Berlin, Singapore, Kiev, and Potsdam. More information can be found at www.metaversum.com and www.twinity.com.

Information about NDP 09:

Singapore celebrated its first National Day in 1966, one year after Singapore's independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965. This year, Singapore is celebrating its 44th birthday on the Marina Bay floating stage.

More information about NDP 09 can be found on the NDPeeps website

Download the digital press kit with logos and screenshots here:

http://press.twinity.com/press_kit/

(This link is for internal editorial department use only)