Consumption and Marketing in A 3D Virtual Space: The Second Life Experience

Second Life As A Commercial Space

Users of SL are free to make their second life whatever they want it to be and the only real limitation is their creativity. As residents in SL, avatars can own homes, lead a life of luxury and even pick and choose what they want their physical features to look like. The term avatar refers to the users’ virtually constructed onscreen graphic characters. Some tech-savvy users can learn how to build their own items in SL or trade goods with other users. Others may opt to purchase real world brands using the SL currency, Linden dollars, which can be exchanged for real-world currency through the exchange service provided by Linden Labs, the creators of SL. The exchange rate offered for Linden dollars allows SL to hover on the cusp between the virtual and real worlds. News agencies like Reuters are taking this new economy seriously and have created an in-world news center (http://blog.secondlife.com), as of January 2008, the population of SL is more than 12 million. The majority of the (active) residents (38%) are from the US although there are inhabitants from more then a hundred other countries. Among these avatars, 41% of them are female and 59% male. The total number of hours spent online has increased drastically since SL’s introduction in 2003. These inhabitants spend a good portion of their day in SL (more than 20 hours a week). Furthermore, Table 1 shows the numbers and distribution of active users by age in January 2008. The average resident is 33 years old. Big crowds in SL also result in increasing money exchanges. Accordingly, Lindex virtual currency exchange has reached $744,564.