Second Life’s virtual-goods economy recorded $567 million in user-to-user transactions in 2009, a 65% increase from 2008, according to GamesBeat’s April 28, 2010 report. The figure is historical: it is not a current annual total, Linden Lab’s corporate revenue, or the amount creators took home as profit.
What the $567 million figure measures
GamesBeat described the $567 million as user-to-user transaction activity in Second Life’s virtual-goods economy during 2009. The 65% comparison is growth over 2008. Those figures refer to transactions involving virtual goods, not a company income statement or a measure of individual sellers’ earnings. GamesBeat’s April 28, 2010 report is the source for the total and growth rate.
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Why it is not Linden Lab revenue or creator profit
A transaction total captures economic activity between users; it does not establish how much Linden Lab earned, how much buyers spent in U.S. dollars, or how much sellers ultimately kept. Those are different financial measures. The historical report does not provide a breakdown that would let readers calculate company revenue or participant profit from the $567 million figure.
How the figure differs from Linden Lab’s current metrics
Linden Lab’s metric glossary defines narrower measures that should not be substituted for the historical user-to-user total. Linden Lab’s economic statistics glossary distinguishes LindeX volume—the gross U.S. dollars exchanged for Linden dollars during a quarter—from web merchandise sales volume, which covers Linden dollars spent on user-created goods in its web marketplace. Neither definition, by itself, makes that measure equivalent to the reported $567 million in 2009 transactions.
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How Second Life’s marketplace fits the story
Linden Lab says Second Life launched in 2003 and describes it as a user-developed virtual world where creators sell virtual items through its marketplace. That context helps explain how user-to-user commerce can generate a large transaction total. It does not establish that the 2009 figure represents the scale of activity today. Linden Lab’s overview of Second Life describes the platform and its creator marketplace.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is the $567 million figure current?
No. It is a report about activity in 2009, published in 2010. A current comparable total is not established by these sources, so the 65% growth rate should be read only as the reported year-over-year change from 2008 to 2009—not as a recent trend or a forecast.
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