SL Merchant Survey: Seven Surprising Insights Into the Virtual Economy

Here's the results of the survey I took last week, asking Second Life-based merchants for their summary of their 2018 sales and their 2019 expectations. (103 responded.) Here's seven key takeaways:

1. Nearly half the SL merchants deal in avatars and avatar enhancements.

48% sell content related to avatars (including skins, bodies, and Bento) and avatar fashion, enhancements, and accessories. In the second largest category, 1 in 4 create and sells homes, buildings, furniture, and furnishings. (Which come to think of it, are also a kind of avatar accessory.)

2. Over 1 in 10 make a full-time income ($50,000+ year) from selling Second Life items -- 8% earn over $100,000 a year.

Another 12% make an income between $21,000 and $50,000, which also qualifies as a full-time income in many parts of the wold. Also notable that for 1 in 3, selling Second Life content is more like a beer money enterprise -- they earned less than $1000 total for 2018.

Five more takeaways below. Is there a virtual world recession? Is copybotting a top problem? Read on!

3. Most SL merchants did well or better in 2018, in relation to the previous year.

Notwithstanding frequent rumors that the virtual economy is in some kind of recession. (Then again, you could argue that these results might be even more positive if the economy was doing better.)

4. Most in-world sales are from SL Merchants' in-world store. 

(As opposed to gachas or subscription boxes, which may be more trendy, but according to this survey, not actually more popular.)

5. Most SL Merchants expect 2019 sales to be decent to "Great".

... Again undermining a common wisdom that virtual winter is coming.

6. ... but nearly half are most concerned about a lack of new customers in the new year.

Only a small percent selected IP infringement or competition as their key concern. Gaining new customers (and by extension, new SL users) is most on the mind of nearly half merchants surveyed.

7. Most SL merchants aren't interested in selling within Sansar or High Fidelity this year.

Almost 1 in 4 are interested in the two official successors to Second Life -- but most are not. The real mystery is which world(s) fit into the "Other" category?

Much more results here -- and please discuss below!

Update, 1/25: As requested by Dr. Questions in Comments, here's the breakdown of earnings from the SL Marketplace, versus in-world:
Only 6% sell nothing in the SL Marketplace, and just 13% make under a fourth of their sales from the Marketplace. A large majority of merchants (60%) make most of their income from the SL marketplace.

Comments

[sirhc desantis]

'Other' means more than one. As I recall, couldn't pick multis on any of the questions.

[Dr.Questions]

Was there a breakdown of sales on the SL website versus in-world stores?

[Hamlet Au]

@ DR. Q: Added the answer at the bottom of the post - thanks for asking!