Making Sense of Second Life Demographics

A recent Reuters article became a good source of Second Life statistics beyond the self reported activity stats on the Second Life Home Page.

The following statistics are based on data released by Linden Labs (owners of Second Life):

Gender self reported
60% male
40% female

The average Second Life user is 33, according to self-reported data

Age of active users:
18-25 27.5%
25-34 38.8%
35-44 21%
45+ 11.5%

On the teen grid, where ages range from 13 to 17, the average age was 15.

Active residents by country:
United States 31.19%
France 12.73%
Germany 10.46%
United Kingdom 8.09%
Netherlands 6.55%
Spain 3.83%
Brazil 3.77%
Canada 3.30%
Belgium 2.63%
Italy 1.93%

“Europeans make up the largest block of Second Life residents with more than 54 percent of active users in January ahead of North America’s 34.5 percent, according to new Linden Lab data.”

“In a related blog post, Linden Lab Chief Financial Officer John Zdanowski aka Zee Linden addressed the much-disputed Second Life usage numbers. He said that unique users — consolidating multiple accounts held by a single user, and eliminating people who have registered but never signed in — totalled 1,974,607 in January, equal to 63 percent of the “total residents” figure that is displayed on secondlife.com.”

“Approximately 10 percent of unique users have logged in for 40 hours or more. Committed usage at this stage of Second Life’s growth requires a great deal of effort,” he said. “Clearly not everyone is going to find relevance, and be able to build on a technology at this early stage.”

So, imagine a scenario where we would want to exclusively target North American females, age 18-25, with a promotion or presence. How big is our audience?

Assuming…
Total Residents: 3,664,703
Logged In Last 60 Days: 1,253,228

Starting with 1,253,228 active residents
390,882 (31.19%) North American
107,492 (27.5%) age 18-25
42,997 (40%) female

Roughly 43m prospects that fit the profile. Then, the challenges become:

1. What to build in SL?
2. What to offer?
3. How to find them and drive them to the destination?
4. How to get them to engage with the brand?
5. How to get a repeat visit?
6. How to get them to tell a friend?

It’s a lot of work and expense, and your not likely to reach every one of those 43m females. Be cautious and think through whether SL is the appropriate place for your efforts. A CPA program on some targeted media properties or a target pay per click campaign may get you better return on investment.

Please share your experiences with Second Life marketing and statistics.
Thanks.
-Roland