Glenn Linden of Second Life on the “Developer Economy” according to their “directory listed” providers.

In June, 2007, a survey was sent to the 190 companies and individuals currently listed in the Developer Directory. Fifty five of (29%) Developers completed the survey (32 of 90, or 36%, responded in February). Since we don’t track any identifying information, comparison with prior surveys may not be comparing the same set of developers. Question wording has also changed, so the responses are not always exactly comparable.

While not requested in the survey, based on location information in the Directory, distribution of Developers is as follows:
47% of Developers are in the US. 14% are in the UK, 7% are in Germany, 6% in the Netherlands, 5% in Canada and >2% each in Australia, Spain, Italy and France. By region, 54% are in North America, 1% in South America, 41% in Europe and 5% in Asia.

Key Results
* Employees† have increased - the total is now about 3000, up from 1500 in Feb. and 500 in November. Most of these employees have come from Second Life.

* The Developer community is approximately a $70M business this year.

* Total projects (300) and revenue ($5M) have decreased slightly since February; whether this is seasonal, a sampling fluctuation or real, is unknown.

* The majority of companies are still small - the median is 6 employees and $80K revenue**; 2/3 have 10 or fewer employees and an average revenue of $50K.

* Average revenue per project is $11K. Total revenue is highly correlated with number of projects.

* Most of the Developers are earning revenue in the hobby range: average revenue** per employee is $33K, the median is $9K, and the 1/3 with the lowest revenue per employee average $1400 per employee.

* Developers would like more regular communication directly from Linden Lab (Questions 7-9).

More here.

I think it is understated (not even counting barter- quite common) although the median of $11k for, what I assume is a “small project”, seems on target.

As for “jobs” in Second Life- according to anecdotal research- meaning people I have talked too:

- Eight out of Ten avatars failed to show up for a job.

- Over 100 or more job listings waiting to be filled.

- Jobs range from $50 Lindens to $500 Lindens per hour- do the math and that sucks- unless you live in India or somewhere where $2.00 US actually adds up.

- With a pay rate like that, I would be one of the eight out of ten failing to show up.

- The real talent, those who understand the nuances of Second Life, are a lot more steep. Ask the developer about channel scanning, communication boosting, push zones, cloned ATMs, zero-mass prims, ROD, object to object encryption, etc…if they don’t know…take a pass. I have seen builds by pro shops that really puzzle me.

- Those with the real talent, usually small shops, do quite well. Be it Linden or U.S. Dollar.

More to come…

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