May 5th, 2008
Wagner thinks that, given some approximation, Linden Lab is earning a gross of about a hundred millions a year, and pays about half of it in expenses.
Let’s take his calculations (he honestly says that he’s not an expert of the matter), and modify them according to my little and humble IT experience:
Linden Income
a) There are 14,600 islands, of which about 7,000 were sold in the last 12 months. They bring a one time sales fee of 1500$ (average), it means 10.5 M$ per year (but this figure is growing, almost doubling every year, so we can assume that for the next 12 months, it will be 14,000 times 1,200 USD = about 17 M$). Wagner says 17 M$. (too much, some island were already sold before one year ago!).
b) Monthly fees: 14,600 times 295$, it means roughly 4.3 M$ monthly, or 51.6 M$ annually.
There is also some land feed on the mainland continents (about half of that earning), so let’s say 2.1 M$ monthly, or 25.2 M$ annually.
Add the premium accounts (92,000 accounts, paying 10$ minus the L$, makes about 400,000 $ per month, or 4.8 M$ per year), add commissions from currency transactions, roughly 1.5 M$ a year.
Total is 51.6 + 25.2 + 4.8 + 1.5 = 83.1 M$ / year.
Total earnings is 93.6 M$/year. Wagner says 96 M$/year.
Linden Expenses
250 employees = 250 times $110,000 = -27.5 M$
Offices (San Francisco, Mountain View, Seattle, Boston, and Dover in UK) cost about 1/3 of salaries (it’s an european average), so let’s say -9 M$/year. Total up till now is -36,5 M$/year, while Wagner is at -30 M$/year.
The grid is about 5,000 servers (Wagner forgot a thousand), you have to consider:
buying and deploying 1,800 of them this year = 1,000 USD times 1,800 = -1.8 M$.
powering, running, fixing 5,000 servers, and mantaining the grid: 2,500 $ times 5,000 = -12.5 M$.
bandwidth for 50,000 concurrent users on average, streaming 40 megs of data per hour = 50,000 * 40Mbyte/hour * 24 * 365 = 17.52 Tbyte/year. You need 50,000 * 40 Mbyte/hour / 3600 = 555 Mbyte/sec, or 4 Gbit/sec of bandwidth for that.
That bandwidth could cost another -2 M$/year.
Publicity, legal, insurance? It’s ok to set it at -5 M$, as Wagner’s extimate.
Total expenses is -36.5 -1.8 -12.5 -2 -5 = -53.3 M$/year. Wagner is at -50 M$.
Income, minus expenses: 93.6 M$ - 53.3 M$ = roughly 40 M$/year. Not bad.
Also, my extimate is very close to Wagner’s. We’re not expert, and if we say 40 M$ or 50 M$ it means we could be both right, or close to truth.
What do you say? Do you think they earn a lot more, or less? What we forgot?
Tags: linden lab, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 2 comments
May 5th, 2008
In an interview available on the Guardian website, Philip Rosedale explains what he thinks about the future of Second Life:
“… I think that it’ll become more pervasive, especially if we open it up and standardize it. I’m not necessarily saying that this one company will control all those servers. No. We’re working on systems where you can have the servers outside of our company. But, yeah, it will become the Web. I believe that what we’re working on right now will become a more common way of using the Internet to retrieve information essentially…”
I really hope that Second Life will evolve into a standardized protocol, which can be used by different virtual worlds… worldwide. It’s like having, or not having, a common HTML for the web. We NEED it. Period.
Tags: philip-rosedale, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 0 comments
May 5th, 2008
According to Reuters, Lego is preparing a great move into the Virtual Worlds, launching a “Lego Universe”, with a pay subscription service.
[image source]
Lego Universe is designed by NetDevil (Colorado, USA), and will give users the ability to interact with classic Lego bricks, and probably with Mindstorms too.
Lego Universe will allow people to order physical versions of their online creations, which will foster Lego adoption and usage worldwide.
I’ve always loved playing with Lego, and I think this is a smart move… we’ll see how Lego Universe will compare to Second Life, and other virtual worlds.
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By sbrunozzi -- 0 comments
May 3rd, 2008
If you have doubt, questions, or are a bit confused about LAND, watch out Linden Lab’s Land video tutorials, which include: basics, land use, region and parcel prim limits, selling and buying parcels, land options, parcel access controls, property lines and land owners, joining and subdividing parcels, terraforming.
Let me know if you find them useful!
Tags: linden lab, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 1 comment
May 2nd, 2008
If something is very slow in Second Life, it’s often for Grid problems… However, it seems that 3D rendering of Avatars can have a significant impact on performances.
The latest release candidate of the Second Life Viewer can show you how much an avatar is impacting on performances.
My take? Stop giving responsibilities to users, start implementing a better rendering engine, and make the Grid more stable and performing. Take OpenCroquet as a guiding light!
Tags: 3d rendering, opencroquet, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 2 comments
May 2nd, 2008
[inspired by Wagner James Au]
Avatar Miss Malaprop (technologist, natural philosopher, mathematrix and occasional purchaser of shoes) prepared a map of the Cosmology of the Grid, to clarify the interactions between Linden Lab, the Grid itself, other Parts and also “…the Broader Aethernet, which does seem to be causing Misapprehensions as to the origins and behaviour of certain Aspects and Components“.
The result is incredibly interesting:
[image source]
I loved the “Hell” concept, and sometimes Advertising could have a small place in it :-)
Tags: cosmology, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 1 comment
May 1st, 2008
Recently, I’m using Twitter a lot: Twitter.com is a website that allows you to post SMS-like messages (up to 140 chars), follow other twitterers, and do other cool things.
This is, for example, my page on Twitter, and you can register on Twitter and start following my “tweets” (messages on Twitter).
You can also check out my Twitter Power! collection of useful Twitter tools and links.
Today I’m introducing Twitterbox, a useful tool to “tweet” inside Second Life. As they say: “Twitterbox is an object which enables one to post to and receive updates from Twitter, when inside Second Life“.
Check it out, and let me know if you like it!
Tags: brunozzi, second life, twitterShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 2 comments
April 30th, 2008
I wasn’t able to attend, but Virtual Worlds 2008 in New York has been a tremendous success.
Now online there are some of the coolest presentations, and mp3s of the great keynotes.
Don’t forget the call for speakers for Virtual Worlds 2008 London, 20-21 october 2008!
If you’re interested in getting a virtual job, check the virtual worlds job listing, it’s hot right now (expecially if you love California)!
Tags: metaverse, second life, virtual worlds, virtual worlds 2008Share This
By sbrunozzi -- 0 comments
April 29th, 2008
Jeremy Bailenson, from Stanford University, explains us how Second Life can change First Life.
Worth reading :-)
Tags: first life, real life, second life, stanfordShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 0 comments
April 29th, 2008
Great news: thanks to Bred, who listened to my kind suggestion, SecondLifePros.com is finally on AllTop.com, a great site which collects the coolest feeds (don’t know what a feed is?) on various topics, such as Virtual Worlds!
Check out this screenshot… Aint’ it supercool? :-)
Tags: alltop.com, second lifeShare This
By sbrunozzi -- 0 comments
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