Recent numbers released by comScore Networks indicate that Second Life experienced a 46% increase in the number of users in March 2007 compared to January 2007.
The popular virtual world enables users to create their own online characters and interact with other virtual users, while owning and building properties, holding a job, and earning Linden currency.
The comScore report indicates that 1.28 million users logged into their Second Life accounts in March. The Second Life Web site says that 1.7 million users have logged in over the past 60 days, and that the total number of registered residents is over 6 million.
Second Life residents are primarily European in real life. Of the 1.28 million users who logged into their accounts in March, about 777,000 of them were from Europe. Europe also had the largest percentage of active residents, which are defined as those who "downloaded the Second Life software and "participated in some Second Life activity." Sixty-one percent of users in Europe are lumped into this active category.
About 207,000 users logged in from the U.S. in March. Only 19% of American users are categorized as active, though this was a 92% increase in the number of active residents compared to January.
Secondlife.com received 3.6 million visits in March, which was a 17% increase from February.
These figures highlight the international reach that the virtual world has, which is key for big and small marketers alike. Second Life has become an interesting way for companies to reach consumers.
Emerging media expert and blogger Greg Verdino is calling for improved measuring capabilities for Second Life, saying that conventional marketing metrics are unable to convey the whole picture.
"We need to measure things like whether users are returning after their first visit, to whether they're forging friendships and buying in-world products, much more than we need to know the numbers of people that are registered," said Verdino.
This could be another opportunity for a company like comScore or Nielsen//NetRatings, which recently released VideoCensus, a new measurement service for online video content.
Sources:
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=59853
http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625769
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