The Virtual Economy Is Booming
The economy may still suck in real life (even if we’ve managed to avoid a Great Depression redux) but in Second Life, it may as well be 2006. New Scientist reports that Americans will spend $621 million (in real dollars) in virtual worlds this year, while the Asian market is dropping an estimated $5 billion (which also fuels the Internet addiction rehab market). Second Life in particular is raking it in with $144 million in transactions in the second quarter of 2009—a 94 percent increase from last year.
What virtual goods are all these real people buying? Well, just about everything, from clothes to art to buildings to sports equipment to…sex gear. Lots of sex gear. And some users are making serious money.