December 19, 2024 9:00 AM
Linden Lab has actually invested $1.3 billion developing the Second Life virtual world, which debuted back in 2003 in the very first period of the metaverse.
And Second Life is still around today. Philip Rosedale, creator and previous CEO of Linden Lab, and Brad Oberwager, executive chair of Linden Lab, talked with me about the magnitude of the financial investment that has actually entered into the Second Life platform and the profits paid to developers. Linden Lab has actually paid out $1.1 billion to developers because 2003.
Roblox kept in mind that a few of the numbers in this story were not correct contrasts, so we’ve upgraded the story with their own actions and repaired errors (upgraded 12/21/24 at 1:57 p.m.).
Those numbers represent a big digital company that is great to keep in mind as all of us continue to go over the metaverse, deep space of virtual worlds that sci-fi folks would enjoy to see linked together one day as the next generation of the web.
Second Life is a location for developers.
In contemporary conversations about the web, Second Life– which was influenced by the 1997 Neal Stephenson unique Snow Crashwhere the term “metaverse” initially appeared– is frequently dismissed. Individuals usually believe about Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft as today’s frontrunners for the metaverse.
Second Life is still around with a fairly little number of users in contrast to the frontrunners (Roblox has 89 million everyday active users). Those users are devoted and they have actually been on the platform for approximately around 14 years, Oberwager stated. Second Life likewise has an economy of about $650 million a year, developed on the trading of virtual items developed inside Second Life.
And considering that Linden Lab shares 90% of deals with developers and just takes a 10% cut, the huge bulk of the cash produced through trade is paid to the developers themselves. This is a testimony to the strength of the creator-based economy and our locals who support them, Oberwager stated. That 10% cut makes it possible for Linden Lab to utilize around 160 individuals.
“I began checking out our numbers and it ends up we have actually eclipsed some quite huge turning points,” Oberwager stated. “While Roblox is 500 times our size (in day-to-day active users), they have actually just paid 10 times more than us in regards to payments to developers in 2015.” (On a routing 12 months basis).
Linden Lab creator Philip Rosedale (left) and executive chairman Brad Oberwager.
Since June 30, 2024, Roblox has actually shared $2.8 billion with the neighborhood considering that 2018. Throughout the exact same duration, Second Life has actually paid about $500 million. That indicates because time that Roblox paid 5.6 times as much as Second Life.
Roblox stated it paid $803 million to developers in 12 months ending June 30, 2024. About 20,000 Roblox users take part in its DevEx program.
