Metaverse Content Creators in Developing Nations Can Do Quite Well -- Once They Break Into the Market (Comment of the Week)

Great comment from a reader based in Brazil, expanding on my point (and that of a fellow Brazilian) about the difficulty for metaverse content creators in the developing world to succeed, due to high costs of entry:

It works the other way round too, the $ is very valuable and gets me a higher standard of living than using that dollar in the USA.

I can eat well, afford rent and my bills, all from Second Life content creation. Adobe prices their monthly subscriptions in the local currency too, but yes [avatar software creation tool] Marvelous Designer is very expensive compared to Adobe's monthly subs.

Reader "Reiille" from Mexico, echoes that point:

 1 USD is worth 20 pesos to us, which of course, if you earn that back in revenue, it can be a huge financial help. I myself have been trying to break into the market, but the investment to be made to put a new brand out there is more than I can afford, so it's been a slow burn. 

So while breaking into a relatively static market* like Second Life is difficult for creators in the developing world, once they do break in, they have a tremendous edge:

Unsurprisingly, many if not most metaverse content creators for whom it's a full-time job seem to be from developing nations. To take a recent example: OSMIA is based in Ukraine, where the minimum wage comes out to about USD $231 per month. A dedicated and talented full-time SL content creator can make twice or three times that, simply from their virtual content. 

This makes me wonder how many of the 1600 SL creators who make over $10,000 a year are in the developing world -- or what's probably better described as Middle Income Countries.

* For creators just starting out, I'd recommend starting with a platform like Core or VRChat over Second Life, since their economies are much newer and/or unofficial.

Comments

[Nodoka Hanamura]

*For creators just starting out, I'd recommend starting with a platform like Core or VRChat over Second Life, since their economies are much newer and/or unofficial.

Honestly, this isn't wise, at least for VRChat. The issue with it here is that while VRC and what not are more dynamic, they suffer in that they suffer from what amounts to virtual balkanization of a community. Without a hub for shopping for the platform, VRChat has had to rely on either giving content out gratis via avatar worlds and the sort, or giving out full permission, non-DRM'd models that are sold all over the goddamn place. Most people use Booth, but the thing is that there are others that likely use other solutions, either intended for the community of VRChat, or like booth - in general.

And on the topic of no DRM, it prevents the protection of people's work from being stolen and copies being made. When it comes down to brass tacks, while SL has a static market, it is at least stable and protected enough to ensure that those who do penetrate into the market do see stable success.

[Adeon]

Ah yes, the thing everyone loves, DRM. I hear so much positive opinions on that.