Avatar Fashion/Accessories Represent 40% of Second Life's Marketplace, But Only 20% of Its Economy

The New York Times style section has a fun piece on the pleasures of virtual fashion during harsh real world economic times, with an emphasis on Second Life and luminaries like Angie Mornington, whose fashionista talk show claims 15,000 weekly viewers. Most interesting to me was this factoid offered by Linden Chief Product Office Tom Hale (T. Linden in-world):

Clothing and accessories account for about 40 percent of the overall virtual marketplace in Second Life, Mr. Hale said, and roughly 20 percent of its economy, which also encompasses land, luxury homes, private jets and rents or services.

If I'm reading that right (and the Times is quoting correctly), that suggests there's twice as much fashion and avatar enhancements for sale in SL than what is actually bought. I wouldn't be surprised if real world fashion had a similar ratio, though I am surprised fashion is just one-fifth of the in-world economy. (I would have guessed one-third.) What major sectors comprise the remaining 80%, do you reckon? Image: nytimes.com.

Comments

[Doreen Garrigus]

What it means, Hamlet, is that the fashion industry in Second Life is highly competitive and not for the faint of heart. More people try to be clothing designers than designers of any other category of goods. Most of them fail---just like in real life.

I would be really interested in seeing a breakdown of spending in SL, by category. I know that the vast majority of the money I spend is tier. That's $40 US every month, and my tier is not even particularly high. In order to match that spending on clothing, hair, skins, and other avatar accessories, I would have to spend more than L$10,000 a month on that stuff. Nice hair can be bought for L$250. A good skin is about L$1000, give or take. A dress is L$300. Can you imagine what my inventory would look like if I bought L$10,000 worth of avatar accessories and appearance enhancers every month?

[Eirik Haefnir]

Land costs / tier probably amounts to a very big part of that 80%. Just by the sheer height of those costs.

And I think other than what Doreen already said and what I agree with, I think another reason why 40% of the marketplace equals only 20% of the economy is the huge amount of fashion freebies.

These days it's not that hard to look good in SL without spending even a penny.

[Sioban McMahon]

I interpreted it differently, Hamlet. Fashion is 40% of what's for sale, but accounts for 20% of the money moving. If I sell dozens of t-shirts, it's still a fraction of money compared to the sale of one parcel of land.

I could be wrong.

[Doreen Garrigus]

I wasn't even going to get into the freebies. With a little bit of thought and effort, you can put together a beautiful avatar with an extensive wardrobe without spending anything at all.

I also waffled back and forth on the meaning of that statistic. Is fashion 40% of what's for sale by number of items or by dollar value? It would indicate vastly different things.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I think Sioban's on the right track... my first thought was that the economy (all monetary transactions) is twice as big as the marketplace (goods for sale).

[melponeme_k]

Interesting article.

I personally have been cutting back on buying in SL. The extra I have all goes towards my tier.

[House of Gryphon]

I agree with your comment about not being surprised if the real world had a similar ratio.