December business profits climb
By Adam Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Jan 9 (Reuters) - December was a strong month for Second Life business owners as the number of residents with a positive cash flow climbed 26 percent, with the biggest percentage rise coming among business owners earning more than US$5,000 a month.
That compared to a 40 percent month-on-month jump in November.
The number of cash-flow positive users rose to 17,327 in December, according to new data released on Monday by Linden Lab. At the top end of the scale, users earning more than US5,000 climbed 55 percent to 90, and those earning US2,000-5,000 rose 48.9 percent to 140.
Linden Lab has provided a new measure of detail in what was previously known as the “profitable business owner” statistic. The measure is now defined as positive monthly Linden flow (PMLF), which excludes Linden Lab charges, payments for land acquisitions, businesses that operate currency exchanges, and third-party payment systems like PayPal. The statistic also consolidates alternate accounts for each unique customer.
As in November, the majority of PMLF users made less than US$10 per month, and about 90 percent made less than US$200 a month.
The price of land climbed sharply in December, with the average price per meter up 47.5 percent to L$9.84. The trend showed little sign of abating in the new year, with January month-to-date prices at L$12.08 per square meter.
The run-up in land prices was due to a “massive” influx of new users to Second Life, said Adam Zaius (in real life, Australian student Adam Frisby), who is director of Deepthink Pty, owner of Azure Islands.
“Since around the end of October, we’ve had a serious problem releasing land fast enough,” he said in an instant-message interview. “We finally got it by releasing 21 sims on the 1st, which has given us a bit of leeway, but that’s nearly sold out again.”
