Growing Mystery: Nielsen Reports Second Life's UK Usage Increasing Faster Than Wikipedia Or iTunes

The contradictory data surrounding Second Life's current phase continues.  From one perspective, the number of monthly active users has remained flat since last August, while peak concurrency has been plateaued since last April.  From another angle, substantial in-world spending (perhaps the best indication of genuine user activity) has grown over the year, as have total user hours. 

A new report from Net Imperative citing Nielsen Online adds further bolsters the optimistic point of view:  from May 2007 to May 2008, total monthly use of Second Life in the UK has grown from 125 million minutes to 296 million.  That growth rate is third only to Facebook and YouTube, and twice more than Google Maps (121 mill) and Wikipedia (146 mill).  And no, this doesn't seem to simply measure activity on Second Life's website, because Nielsen also counts the growth of the non-Web app iTunes.  (Which is large, but growing slower than SL over that same 12 month period, from 514 to 536 mill minutes.)  Meanwhile Club Penguin, a virtual world which has a far larger monthly active user base than Second Life (4 million as of last year), trails far behind in total usage.

So why has spending and usage going up so consistently over the year?  Metaverse analyst Dusan Writer believes this pattern may by explained by a profound shift in the Second Life economy:

The beach house, socializing user of yesterday might very well have been supplanted by teachers and students, businesses and trainers - who knows, maybe the hidden economy is all off on those closed islands, with IBM happily playing behind its firewall or Cisco or whoever holding business meetings over on some corporate sim somewhere.

That would explain why 17,000+ more users were spending between $37 to $187 worth of Linden Dollars last May, compared to May 2007.  Dusan argues that the excess of virtual consumer goods is causing their baseline value to plummet, but that's being offset by real world educators and companies who can afford to buy only the best for their SL sites.  That might also explain the overall growth in usage minutes (at least in the UK)-- if you're spending more on virtual goods, it stands to reason you're going to go in-world more, to enjoy it.

Of course Britain's use pattern may be an exception; I'd love to see usage studies from other countries.  Meanwhile, what's your take on this data set?

Image credit: Netimperative.com.

Comments

[eggy lippmann]

Meetings. What a dull use for something that could host all of the world's MMOs, museums, and monuments.
Will we see a richly interactive 3D version of wikipedia before we die?
All of the world's knowledge and entertainment in an immersive, social setting?

[Ian Betteridge]

If you find meetings dull, you're in the wrong job. Or having too many meetings. You think camping chairs are a better use?

[Aleister Kronos]

If I had camping chairs for when I have to attend meetings then I'd be a much happier chap. Then again, I prefer to stand and walk about during meetings, as I find it helps me think better and I enjoy the meeting more.

As for us Brits spending more time in SL... maybe we're just trying to get away from the horrors of the slow motion car crash that is the British economy at the moment.

[eggy lippmann]

Dear Ian, thank you for your comment. I don't find meetings dull. I find them a dull use, or rather, a very minimal, non-ambitious and non-exciting use of a very complex, ambitious and exciting piece of software.
I mentioned some uses that I would find more interesting, above :)

[Exosius Woolley]

Meetings may be "dull," but I can attend them without paying for car or jet fuel. And that's really the point for us. Being able to speak, share and chat privately while collaborating over thousands of miles is not an insignificant advantage.