CORRECTED - New avatar registrations outpace SL usage
By Adam Reuters
(In 3rd paragraph, please read 36,500 instead of 365,000. In 8th paragraph, please read “US$917,000″ instead of “US$917 million.”)
(SECOND LIFE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Growth in the number of registered Second Life avatars, rapidly closing in on 2 million, has drastically outstripped the increase in user hours in recent months, according to new data from Linden Lab.
The number of registered avatars doubled to more than 1.6 million from September to November, when a surge of publicity brought a slew of new visitors to the virtual world. By contrast, the total amount of time that Second Life residents spent in-world rose 29 percent to 6.4 million hours in the same period.
The number of Second Life premium users, who pay a monthly fee in exchange for a stipend and the ability to own land, also rose 29 percent, to 36,500. The November figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
The new data spurs questions about how many new users log in to Second Life a few times, never to return. Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale told Second Life Insider’s Tateru Nino last month that about 10 percent of new residents still log into Second Life weekly, three months after they first enter the virtual world.
“Ten percent is pretty good given the computer requirements and steep learning curve,” Rosedale told Nino. “That percentage hasn’t changed much with the much higher rate of new users.”
Linden Lab itself relies on user hours and premium user figures, rather than the number of registered avatars, to calculate per capita growth in the money supply, Chief Financial Officer John Zdanowski told Reuters this week via instant message.
Separately, the amount of money converted from Linden dollars to U.S. dollars on the Lindex exchange — either by business owners converting their virtual profits into “real” money, or by people dropping out of Second Life — rose 68 percent over the last six months, and increased more than four-fold in the last year, according to Linden Lab data.
However, the amount of cashouts, which stood at about US$1.01 million in September, fell in October to US$917,000 and only recovered slightly November to about $1 million. The Second Life business sector was roiled in October by a hike in island ownership fees, and in November by the Copybot controversy.
