OK, Second Life is picking up momentum fast, and according to a study just released by ComScore tonight, Second Life” Has a Rapidly Growing and Global Base of Active Residents. Here are the details:
The study revealed that approximately 1.3 million people ran the official software and logged-in to Second Life in March 2007. This represents an increase of 46 percent in the number of active residents from January 2007.
In March, 61 percent of active Second Life residents were from Europe, compared to 19 percent from North America, and 13 percent from Asia Pacific. In addition, 61 percent of residents were male while 39 percent were female.
Geographical Location of Second Life Residents Who Logged-in During January and March 2007
Mar-07 (000) Percent of Total Active Residents Increase In Active Residents Mar-07 vs. Jan-07 Worldwide 1,283** 100%** 46% Europe 777 61% 32% Germany 209 16% 70% France 104 8% 53% UK 72 6% 24% North America 243 19% 103% USA 207 16% 92% Asia Pacific 167 13% N/A*** Latin America 77 6% 26% Middle East & Africa 20 2% N/A*** *Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. ** Sum of components may equal more than total due to rounding *** N/A – Residents in January below minimum reporting standard I wonder how these numbers mech up with Linden Lab's own Census for March 07? The last Second Life Census - overall Metrics through January 2007 had the most accurate information you could gather - directly from the Second Life Grid. Now that ComScore has released numbers of active residents and their location I'd like Linden Labs to give us their numbers and then we'll compare - if ComScore's numbers are accurate - the growth of Second Life is Phenomenal. Let's hope Linden Labs can keep the Grid up long enough to really get the next 10 or 20 million residents to join. But the Buzz about Second Life continues to grow -and sometimes it emerges from the most unexpected corners, like an email from a friend that I just got a little while ago, tonight: "…Dare I say it? It's a pool I don't want to jump into b/c of time that I don't have to live my real life, but it could make for some very fun ideas! I've been avoiding Second Life, but it's become unavoidable. But there is so much going on in there! For those of you who don't know, and maybe all of you do, Second Life is where you have an avatar (digital version of a person) who has a life and buys things. With real money. It's a doll house but with pixels. Last year American Apparel opened a store there, with virtual tshirts. That's the big example everyone uses to describe it. I don't have a myspace page b/c of time and negative associations I have with it, even though lots of wonderful people are in myspace. What I might do, though, is make the Second LIfe jump…eek! I have to nurture my Linked In account first." And this snippet was not written by my friend Nichelle; it came from a of hers who was involved with a book signing tonight. Think about this - if the stage we're at now is Virtual Worlds are about to "explode" and become an "in" thing to do - a "smart" thing … reaching the next 10 to 20 million people in Second Life will happen in a matter of 6 months, not a couple of years. Once a trend takes off … it can accelerate very quickly.