Australians in Second Life Update - steady as she goes

The November economic statistics are available and it shows an active Australian Second Life population of 11,982, a whole seven more the September figure of 11,975 (Linden Lab didn’t release anything for October until the update today).

Once again Australia remains in 11th place world-wide, which is 2.21% of the overall vatar count. Given that this time last year the population explosion was well under way, it’s fair to say that things are stagnating a little from the Australian perspective. The Xmas / New Year break may lead to some more sign-ups or we may end up with more of the same. Have we reached saturation point in Australia? I wouldn’t have thought so but the argument that it’s seasonal is getting tenuous given the period of time it’s been going on.

Update: New World Notes has an interesting discussion on the plateau phase Second Life has reached.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Latest Second Life service metrics available

Linden Lab have released their service metrics for November. There’s been some improvement but overall performance remains a mixed bag.

Although there’s been an improvement over recent months, you can still expect a viewer crash one in five times - hardly a stable platform but at least one on the improve.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Second Life is really just Wagga

Whilst trawling around Linden Lab land metrics, it occurred to me that it’d be interesting to work out how much of Australia Second Life would take up.

As of the end of September 2007, the Second Life grid equated to 871.32 square kilometres of land. Australia is 7 682 300 square km, so all of Second Life makes up just over 0.001 precent of Australia. Tasmania is 68300 square kilometres so even though Second Life seems vast, we’re more a small city (roughly two Wagga Waggas) than a world in geographic terms. Funnily enough, Wagga has a population of nearly sixty thousand people - not much more than the number of people using Second Life in peak hours.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Aussie population update - the decline continues

Linden Lab have released the metrics for September 2007 and there’s been a further significant decline in the number of Australians actively using Second Life.

The active Australian population is now cited as 11,975, down from the 13,567 reported last month and the 14.832 the month before that. Australia has stayed in 11th place overall for countries using Second Life.

That’s a really significant drop in Australians using SL actively. We seem to be heading back to below ten thousand if the trend continues.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Aussie population update - active users decline for first time

Linden Lab have released the metrics for August 2007 and for the first time since we started monitoring Australians in Second Life, there’s been a decline.

The active Australian population is cited as 13,567, down from the 14,832 reported last month. Australia has stayed in 11th place overall for countries using Second Life. According to New World Notes, Australia comes in fourth as far as active residents in proportion to country population.

Has SL reached its saturation point in SL? I’d think not, although until there’s a new reason for Australians to hear about SL such as a new corporate presence or other major event, I can’t see any great increase in numbers occurring.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Aussie population update - 15K and rising

Linden Lab have released the metrics for July 2007 and the rate of growth is slow but steady.

The active Australian population is cited as 14,832, up from the 12,910 reported last month. Australia is back to 11th place overall.

One of the interesting new metrics released was number of SL sessions that ended abnormally i.e. crashes. Since January 2007, around a quarter of sessions ended in a crash. That’s an astounding level - imagine any established software vendor trying to sell a product that only works correctly three out of four times. That said, it illustrates just how committed Linden Lab are to transaparency that they even publish figures showing their key weaknesses.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The SLOz Traffic Index - July 2007

We’re back with an expanded STI. The overall feedback has been positive, particularly once we’ve explained the general purpose of the STI. Our favourite quote in reaction to last month’s initial effort was that using traffic to measure popularity was like using turds to measure digestion (thanks Metaversed).

Which leads perfectly to a reminder on methodology as well as a couple of disclaimers:

1. The number linked to each presence is a standard average based on dwell statistics provided to all SL users via the Search Places option.
2. For large presences we’ve chosen the most popular area rather than add up total dwell - this means larger presences may have overall larger numbers but that’s not what we’re measuring (see also point 5). Example: The Pond and ABC Island have many different areas - we track the traffic on the most popular area for both those presences.
3. Each presence, unless an addition since the start of the reporting period, has had their traffic stats measured at least ten times with each instance at least 24 hours apart.
4. The individual times and statistics can be found here
5. The STI is indicative only - yes we know there are much more detailed methodologies and that ours is a rough guide only for the SL community - we think of it as a ‘what’s hot’ measure. Discussion / criticism on the STI here.

The July results:

There are a couple of additions to the index, with PIER one of the more popular new ones. The Enchanted Realm traffic is based on one sample only so it’s too early to tell if it’ll maintain its current position. The Billabong Bar and ABC Sandbox retain their appeal and Armory Island’s wall-to-wall gun-toting keeps it in prime position.

If you have a presence in SL that you’d like added to the index, let us know. It just has to be owned / operated by Australians for inclusion. We look forward to any feedback.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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