SL economy: half a billion US dollars

http://www.metanomics.net/show/virtual_goods_and_linden_lab/

"Last year, Residents of the immersive 3D world of Second Life spent more than $360 million on countless items of virtual goods – from land to designer shoes to lavish homes. The virtual economy almost doubled in size in the past year, and at nearly $50 million per month in user-to-user transactions, the Second Life economy is now on an annual run rate of more than half a billion US dollars, making Second Life the largest virtual economy in the industry."

The user-to-user transactions total is misleading. If you give me 10 L$ and then I give you back 10 L$, that's 20 L$ in user-to-user transactions. It doesn't tell you how much of that money is people merely passing the same buck around among a closed circle of people, unfortunately.

A much more telling figure is the amount of real money being brought into the equation through the purchase of L$ and through tier payments.

I wonder how many people do that (give money back and forth to each other).

A lot of people transfer money between their own alts.

Oh, that makes sense. OK.