Second Life: European fans lead the charge

The popularity of Second Life continues to rocket, with the virtual world currently proving even more popular in Europe than in the US.

In March, 61 per cent of active Second Life residents were from Europe, compared to 16 per cent from the US and 13 per cent from Asia Pacific, according to research by comScore.

The study calculated around 1.3 million people ran the official software and logged-in to Second Life in March 2007. This represents an increase of 46 per cent in the number of active residents from January 2007, comScore said.

Second Life - the corporate invasion

Click on the links below to see pictures of some of the many real-world businesses that have set up outposts in Second Life.

Adidas
Nissan
Sun Microsystems
Reebok
Penguin
American Apparel
Reuters
CNET Networks
PA Consulting
Yankee Stadium
Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Second Life's own figures state it has more than six million residents and that 1.7 million have logged in during the last 60 days.

Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe said that with nearly 800,000 active residents in Europe, Second Life is proving to be popular on an international scale.

It is little wonder that bricks-and-mortar businesses are seeing Second Life as a virtual-world way of accessing a global, real-world customer base, he said.

The comStore research found 61 per cent of residents are male and 39 per cent are female. While in the month of March around 16 per cent of Second Life users came from Germany, eight per cent from France and six per cent from the UK. The number of active residents of the virtual world coming from the UK grew 24 per cent between January and March this year - compared to growth of 92 per cent in the number of US users and a 70 per cent increase in German fans.

In addition to the resident activity cited above, comScore found that the SecondLife.com website was visited by 3.6 million visitors in March, up 17 per cent on the previous month and an increase of 46 per cent over January. comScore said this indicates continuing and potential future growth in Second Life residents, since the application used to access the virtual world is only available from this site.