Mishi Akin, owner of the massively successful virtual fashion brand Blueberry, recently ran a survey among her subscribers, asking them which mesh avatar body they use. 2879 customers responded (a very impressive data sample), and the results (above) are striking:
They show an overwhelming preference for the Maitreya body sold by Onyx LeShelle. In Mishi's survey, respondents could choose more than one body ("they could choose all if they wanted to", she tells me), but even then, Maitreya was far and away the clear choice.
Her reason for conducting this survey also provides insight into the state of the Second Life avatar economy: "I check to see if another body rose in popularity more than the six I design for," she explains, "so I can optimize my products. For example, if a new body was more widely used than the least used body on my design list I would replace it with the new body."
She tells me she conducted a similar survey 2 years ago, and the top choices are unchanged from what you see above: Maitreya, Slink Hourglass and Physique, and Freya, Isis, and Venus from Belleza. Or to put it another away: Three SL avatar body brands overwhelmingly dominate the market. This is partly due to what's called vendor lock-in: Once you buy a product that's dependent on specific accessories, it's very difficult to switch to a competing product.
But why is Maitreya far and away the market leader? Mishi has a fascinating theory there:
Continue reading "SL Avatar Body Survey from Top Fashion Brand Dominated by Maitreya" »
To Survive, Second Life's Modeling Industry Must Modernize and Be Less Drama-Filled Than the RL Modeling Industry (Comments of the Week)
Really interesting conversation over last Friday's post on how mesh has helped contribute to the decline of Second Life's modeling industry. According to SL fashion blogger Alaska Metropolitan (above), SL agencies must transcend the technical limitations of Second Life as a platform and leverage social media more:
Reader "Dusky" argues that the real challenge is not so much mesh, as the culture around SL modeling, which seems pretty much like its real life counterpart, except maybe with a little less cocaine and anorexia:
Continue reading "To Survive, Second Life's Modeling Industry Must Modernize and Be Less Drama-Filled Than the RL Modeling Industry (Comments of the Week)" »
Posted on Monday, July 24, 2017 at 12:49 PM in Comment of the Week, Economics of SL, SL Fashion | Permalink | Comments (1)
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