There.com was created to make everyone feel comfortable, not just gamers, not just people over 18 and not just people who have high end computers.  It didn't allow users to create content that would infringe on existing brands.  On March 2nd Makena Technologies announced they will be closing the doors on March 9, 2010.

There.com has been shy to announce how many users they have,  I don't recall ever seeing a growth report.  In an interview that was broadcast from There.com into Second Live on Dr. Dobbs Island (CMP Information Week's Island) Ceo Michael Wilson was critical of Second Life for announcing their user base but wouldn't say how many users were on There.com.  Many brands such as Coca-Cola, CosmoGirl, K-Swiss, Bebe and Spin (these are the only brands mentioned in the announcement) and others made There.com their home.  There.com made its revenue on both brand partnerships and virtual goods sales, apparently this wasn't enough.

In my adventures on There.com in 2008 I was frustrated that I could only rent or buy clothes with therebucks to change the look of my default avatar.  For a free account you can only look like everyone else wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops,  I felt like i was camping on a beach.  There was little help on the island and it was for the most part deserted.  There.com believes their virtual world was affected because their users were hardest hit by the recession and as a result so were they.  They can no longer keep writing cheques to keep the doors open.  Interestingly enough Second Life user base and the economy continued to grow during the recession.

"Possibly due to its further efforts in educational projects, Makena will not be making There.com open source."

There.com closing announcement