Second Life's economy is the envy of the real world
Virtual world Second Life is out with its Q1 2009 Economic Report and things are looking up. In fact, Second Life economics look much better than the real world.
Users are spending much more time on the site despite a drop in land ownership. In an interview with CNET News, Linden Labs CEO Mark Kingdon estimated "user-to-user monetary transactions in Second Life may hit $450 million in 2009, up from $350 million."
An overall mood of increasing optimism - A number of factors drove the growth in the Second Life economy in Q1 2009: an increase in active users and user hours, a steady influx of new Residents, and continued improvements in grid stability. Anecdotal conversations with large estate owners and merchants point to a renewed optimism about the Second Life economy, while our recent business owner survey (as reported by M Linden on the Offical Second Life Blog), indicated that 68% of business owners are planning on maintaining or increasing their investment in Second Life in the next six months. And 61% of business owners are optimistic that their revenue from Second Life will grow. So despite the real life economic crisis, the Second Life economy continues apace.
Some obligatory statistics for all you numbers people:
- 124 million user hours, an increase of 42 percent from the same quarter last year
- Peak concurrent users of 88,200, an increase of 33 percent from the same quarter last year
- The value of user-to-user transactions was $120 million, up 65 percent from the same quarter last year
- The Island market has stabilized, although overall square meters of resident-owned Land has decreased
- Gross sales on the Xstreet SL marketplace grew 23 percent over Q4 of 2008 and 72 percent over the same quarter last year
What does this all mean? Well, it's a bit hard to tell since Linden Labs is private and doesn't disclose real dollars. It does however prove that there is money to be made in virtual goods, provided you have a user base with enough transaction volume.
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Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
This suggests to me that there is still a steady interest after the intial hype died down
There are TONS more better MMOS - With FAR BETTER economies - but just because they are ranked under "fantasy" they don't make the new!
This one of the Stupidest games - yes (sadly) I've tried it ... on a friends comp.
Though you can role play there like many other places and build and act out whatever "game" it is that you indulge. The fact that you can create and actually extend "real life" business from within SecondLife solidly suggests that its a great way to better understand just what it is and what it takes to own and operate a business not too much unlike the per'se "real world" who cares what you get dressed up as or like.
The real value I feel in SecondLife is the collection of creative individuals and groups werein we all are afforded the ability to share and express in more than static images and text and with easily accessed language translators suffer no restrictions in communications.
What is sad I think is that some people have no other purpose other than to play games. I hope you have fun doing whatever you do never-the-less.
If you want it to be a game, it will be.
If you want it to be a social network, it will be.
Best of all its an outlet for creativity, take a look at the second life showcase on the website, there is boundless creativity in SL.
If you want it to be a business, it can be (with effort).
If you take the time to learn the content creation skills, there is still real life money to be made. Sure there was a hyped up boost, but the underlying base of users/creators/businesses/education establishments is growing all the time. Real people are still supplementing real life incomes with money they made from their activity in SL.
Some find it doesnt work for them, others wonder how they ever managed without it.
Its been around for a long time now, and it sure isnt fading away. $120 million USD user to user transactions in 3 months is testament to that.
Long Live Second Life !
(and besides, being creative is better than watching the s**t they put on TV!)
- by Callighan August 21, 2009 8:18 AM PDT
- I fully agree with you, virtually_creative.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(6 Comments)I've only recently joined and I'm so hooked on it.
The social and sandbox nature of Second Life makes it limitless in terms of potential.
I love it.
Perhaps the only thing that entices me more than SL is Eve online. And that's saying a lot.