As promised, here's some of the top highlights to my Patreon subscriber report on the Second Life economy in its 21st year:
With one hundred and eleven SL merchants responding to my survey, this overview of the Second Life economy represents a sizable slice of the most financially successful content creators in the virtual world.
Over 40% gross $10,000+ a year from their SL content (above)
Over 40% of merchants report grossing $10,000 or more per year from their SL content (a good side income hustle for most people), with 1 in 6 of them grossing over $50,000 a year or more -- an income level that would put them well over the median income of US workers. (In 2022, individual median income in the US was just under $40,00/year.)
Nearly all merchants are small, 1-3 person operations
Asked, “How many people, including outsourced and part-time staff, help run your SL brand and its events/services/sales/etc?”, an incredible 93% of SL merchants surveyed said they were tiny operations of 1-3 people.
By contrast, only 1% -- literally one person, in this survey -- answered that they have a team of over 20. While there are frequent whispers that Second Life’s top brands have huge teams of outsourcers creating content for them, that situation remains relatively rare.
Next: How many merchants are preparing for SL mobile? Using generative AI? Or suspect the economy is an oligopoly?
Only 17% are actively preparing to sell their content to SL mobile users
In perhaps my greatest personal shock, I discovered that the vast majority of SL merchants (!) are not actively preparing to sell their content on Second Life’s mobile app, which is currently in closed Beta (as of June 2024) for Premium+ members. (More on that below.)
1 in 4 use generative AI to create/promote their SL content
While 3 in 4 say they do not use generative AI at any stage of creation and selling of their content, this also means that 25% of merchants do -- with 15% saying they use it in the creation of their SL content or in both creation and promotion of it. With generative AI programs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion only two years old, you could argue this is rapid adoption of these tools.
Nearly half believe the Second Life economy is dominated by oligopolies
Somewhat surprisingly, a plurality of merchants believe some SL brands have oligopolistic power over the virtual economy, while 37% are open to that possibility: I’ve frequently heard complaints that some SL brands dominate the market, but hesitate to discuss this further with me. As to which SL brands in what niche they hold monopoly powers, that’s a topic for another report!
Much more here in the full report, including: What's the optimal price point for an SL item? What percent of revenue is from the Marketplace? What lesser-known tools do merchants recommend, and what advice do they have to share with other creators?
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