Survey of Developers in the Second Life Developer Directory
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 3:02 PM by: glennlindenIn Ferbruary 2007, a survey was sent to developers listed in the Developer Directory. The Directory lists 90 developers comprised of 50 full-service and 40 consultants and listings have doubled in the last 3 months. This developer community provides employment opportunities for Residents who have building, scripting and other Second Life skills and has almost tripled in employees and income related to Second Life during the last 3 months. Most of these new employees are Second Life Residents.
The Second Life Developer Program provides two services: listing in the Developer Directory and access to beta API programs (http://secondlife.com/developers/program.php). Technical information is provided to the developer community via the secondlife.com website, the Second Life Blog and the Knowledge Base, and is available to all Second Life Residents.
Listing in the Developer Directory provides visibility for individuals and companies who are experienced developers in Second Life. The Directory provides a resource for people or companies seeking help creating a presence in Second Life. Listings are open to any individual or company who has completed at least two projects for hire in-world. (Go to http://secondlife.com/developers/submission.php for the submission form.)
About 1/3 of the developers responded to the survey so the actual size of the Developer Directory community may be 3 times indicated by the responses below.
Results of the Survey
1) Number of full-time equivalent employees and contractors
Total: 559 Average: 19 Median: 5
As we found in November, the Developer community has a large number of small companies, and a small number of fairly large companies. The largest number of employees was 175, and 3 companies listed over 50 employees.
2) Number of these that are in a different country than your main office
Total: 134 (24% of total employees) Average: 4 Median: 0
47% of the companies had employees in another country than their main office. The number of employees outside the country did not correlate with company size.
3) Where do you recruit employees?
Mostly Second Life: 41%
Mostly real life: 19%
Both: 41%
Second Life continues to be the major source of employees (and contractors) for our those listed in the Developer Directory.
4) Projects in the current pipeline
Total: 380 Average: 12 Median: 4
The number of projects has grown at about the same rate as employees - 2.5x since November. The 9 largest companies have an average of 15 projects, and the 17 smallest companies had an average of 4 projects.
5) What is your estimated revenue (in US$) from Second Life projects for Q1 of 2007?
Total: US$ 6,700,000 Average: US$ 161,500 Median: US$ 31,500
The revenue per company ranged from $45 - $2M. The largest 10 companies income was about 35x the smallest 10 companies.
6) How many regions did you purchase in January 2007? How many regions do you expect to purchase during February 2007?
January February
Total: 38 93
Average: 1 3
Median: 0 1
In many cases, developers work on regions that have been purchased by a business, so this number only represents the regions they directly have purchased. In January Linden Lab delivered 799 regions. If this survey represents 1/3 of developers, they directly purchased 114, or 15% of regions.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:13 PM
First comment! Whoopee!
*Nod* Pretty nice, i’m soon an experienced developer but i’m in the Teen Grid. >_>. And 3 has an error hehe 19% is 18% as it totals to 101%
March 20th, 2007 at 3:13 PM
Ferbruary …. for real!
March 20th, 2007 at 3:46 PM
1) Number of full-time equivalent employees and contractors
Total: 559
Total: US$ 6,700,000
So the full time employees are making an average of 12,700 / year?
I did the math right? Somebody please check. I’d love to know what the median is
March 20th, 2007 at 3:47 PM
1) I’d like to know what the average charge per hour is? (3 levels)
2) I’d like to know with what skills sets and capacity others gauge there flat rates?
3) How do others manage to get the first 2 gigs?
4) Does SL ever employ freelance builders for there builds?
Thanks in advance for any pointers and feedback ;O)-
March 20th, 2007 at 3:49 PM
ah woop… 6,700,000 per quarter. It still doesn’t look great for the median
March 20th, 2007 at 4:26 PM
[...] (more…) [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Hmmm… and what about all the developers who create things for people at no charge because the project interests them and they simply cannot be bothered to receive 10 cents an hour? I suppose none of them will qualify for the development directory club. And how do you know people have completed two project for hire? Do you they just tell you? Do you believe them? My continuing impression has been that there is a lot of story fabrication in SL. Do clever stories count as projects? (smiles)
March 20th, 2007 at 6:35 PM
Yeah, Web, the mean doesn’t look all that great when you put in those terms. If my math is right, the mean annual revenue divided by the mean number of employees is $25,2000. That means half of all full time developers’ employees could well be making less than $25K a year. That puts them in about the same league, financially, as McDonalds managers, but with infinitely more enjoyable work.
I would chalk this up more to poor business management than anything else, if I had to guess. To me, the numbers suggest that a great many companies are not charging nearly what their projects are really worth, and a great many people are willing to work for far less than they should be getting paid. As Desdemona hinted, there are those who are content to work for pennies an hour (especially if they’re not operating in an expensive country like the US). I’m not one of those people, so I guess that’s one reason I work for one of those “10 largest companies”, not any of the “10 smallest”.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:51 PM
lol. Chosen Few, to have 25K USD a year here in my country you gonna have to be at a high management level in a pretty big company. Me as a programmer would be more than content with just 8-10K USD a year. And if this come from SL, that’s a very enjoyable work.
Current exchange rate is approximately 6L/1THB.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:53 PM
[...] (more…) [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Chosen Few, remember that you have a very big difference between the couple of ‘big’ companies there who offer their services as their only employment, and the majority of people on the DD that actually do work as a ’second income’.
There are not many who can live solely off of SL projects - mostly due to the volatile nature of it - so most people just work as a supplementary income, and perhaps doing just one project a month to cover their tier or simply to enable them to buy things they wouldn’t normally be able to.
You also have to remember that some companies will charge big name corporations $10,000 and upwards for the build of one island, whereas a smaller company might charge $400 for an equally good construction on the same size plot of land. We all have the same tools available to us - so the difference in price is usually down to overheads, something that a smaller company has far less of, and can naturally be more competitive.
Whilst Linden Lab do promote the ‘big names’ that come here, I do fear sometimes that the many smaller companies - both developers and people coming here to have a presence built - are being overlooked when the statistics swamp them, something that you appear to have fallen for.
It’s just a pity that two particular companies seem to be constantly promoted when it comes to building, when I am quite sure that some of the ’smaller outfits’ could do a much better job, with more care attention and personal satisfaction.
Broccoli
March 21st, 2007 at 12:53 AM
How does one verify the quality of these developers?
Seems to be that some are indeed quality people that prefer to do contract work and it is their way of enjoying SL.
But a lot of these are also wanabees who just _think_ they’re good enough or people that can’t manage to produce any products that people would want to pay for normally.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:07 AM
why is there no possibility to buy linden by internetbanking?
March 21st, 2007 at 4:24 AM
“How does one verify the quality of these developers?”
To make it on to the list, you have to have completed several in-world projects that will be verified (or at least looked at) by Linden Lab.
Before engaging the services of anyone, look at their DD entry and find out what they have created. Then go look. If you don’t like their work… then find someone else, just as you would with any other supplier.
If they have a website, check that out too. A professional looking website will portray a better image than something with broken links, pop-up adverts and spellling/grammar mistakes.
If you don’t feel confident about using someone before you even start talking to them… then there’s your answer.
There are indeed a lot of ‘wannabes’ out there, but not just anyone can get on the list.
Broccoli
March 21st, 2007 at 5:29 AM
@5
I think you have to consider SL as a “labour of love”. In RL, I work as a Consultant for one of the largest IT Service companies in Europe. They charge customers from 600 - 800 pounds sterling per day for my work. At currrent exchange rates this is about 200 US$ per hour. Clearly it would be unrealistic to charge this for any work I might do on SL - even though I apply exactly the same professional standards to it as I would in RL. Even charging the full economic cost of working at home does not seem feasible, as this would be in the order of 40 US $ per hour.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:41 AM
@11… unfortunately you are probably right, and this is enforced by the marketing blurb that says you can make a real living here. For 99.9% of the population this is never ever likely to happen.
Of course I’d love to be able to give up my boring daytime office job, and spend all my time in SL doing some building - and being paid for it - but that is not likely to happen. It’s just like being self employed, and my circumstances sadly do not allow me to take that financial risk for me or my family.
Broccoli
March 21st, 2007 at 8:30 AM
[...] has released a cool survey of developers providing 3rd party services in the Second Life platform. At SXSW, Reuben Steiger of Millions of Us [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 8:38 AM
Corvaire, many people get their first gigs either by word of mouth or by listing in one of the classifieds- SLClassified, SLExchange or SLBoutique.
Trying to calculate average income for developers is not meaningful, in that some companies answered the income question but didn’t answer the employees question and vice versa, so you’re comparing apples and oranges. In addition, several developers reported no income (not the same as zero) and as noted, several reported no employees (which is not likely).
As for quality of developers and screening listing submissions, as several of you noted, we do require people to list completed projects as a rough guideline of accomplishment.
Broccoli, we’ve tried to provide a level playing field in the Developer Directory. Some developers have a lot of visibility because they’re promoting themselves.
March 21st, 2007 at 8:48 AM
Glenn, it might help if there was a more “granular” (as I believe the in-term is these days at the lab) way of searching for what people do.
There appears to be a huge difference between what you class as “full service” and “consultants” - when many of those who are not able to compete with people such as ESC or Rivers Run Red, but are capable of providing just as good a ‘full’ service for a fraction of the cost.
Maybe a selection of tickboxes for what people provide - building, landscaping, consultancy, promotion/PR, machinema, scripting, avatars etc - so that you can search those that match all that you are looking for - would make life a little easier instead of having just two categories? A company providing building services would, for example, not be competing with a custom avatar creator - but they are lumped together under “consultancy” at the moment.
Broccoli
March 21st, 2007 at 8:49 AM
… oh, and I’m not blaming you for my family circumstances not allowing me to take the risk of becoming full-time reliant on SL as an income
Broccoli
March 21st, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Borccoli, thank you for your opinion, but I haven’t “fallen for” anything. You’re welcome to disagree with me, but please don’t imply I’ve been brainwashed or that I don’t know what I’m talking about. As someone who does make my living in the industry that you from the outside see as too risky to plunge into yourself, I think I’m well enough informed. Please refrain from trying to state otherwise.
Okay, on to the actual discussion…
I don’t really see your point where you said bigger companies get more attention than smaller ones. That’s hardly surprising, is it? Of course, smaller companies aren’t as well recognized as bigger ones. That’s just the nature of big vs. small.
It works the same way in RL too. If you’re big, a lot of people will be aware of you; if you’re not, many people won’t. So, what point were you trying to make?
Keep in mind, by the way, every big company in the world started out as a small company. Heck, Sony started out as a failed rice cooker manufacturer. Apple and Microsoft both started out in somebody’s garage. Walmart began as a local five and dime store.
Whether we’re talking about SL or RL, every company starts small. The ones that are determined to persevere market themselves well, and they become larger. The ones that don’t have that drive either stay small forever and constantly wonder why, or else they just fade away. That’s just how the world works.
No offense, but most of what you’ve said about the SL developer industry seems to be based on judgment from afar, rather than on any real research you’ve conducted yourself. I’d encourage you to give the industry more serious study so that you can offer facts to back up your opinions in discussions like this, rather than so many suppositions.
How do you know factually, for example, that there are “not many who can live solely off SL projects”? You might be right that there are not a lot of people who DO, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many who CAN. How many people have you come across who really tried, but just couldn’t make it work? I have yet to meet any myself. My experience has been that there are only two categories people fall into here. There are those who do it, and those who just talk about doing it. I’ve never met anyone who actually failed at it.
Also, by what criteria are you defining it as “volatile”? From my point of view, all signs are that virtual world development is a tremendous growth industry. It’s only just getting started. Sure, there will be ups and downs with it, just like with anything else, but (and I hate to keep repeating this phrase) that’s just how the world works. Nothing is guaranteed. Again, those who are willing persevere do well in the end, and those who aren’t don’t. That’s not the industry (any industry); that’s the individual people.
Your comment about supplementary income vs. main income, would be a valid point, except for the fact that the question was about full time employees. No attention to part time workers was given in the original post here.
As for what you said about “you have to remember” in regard to the amount people charge, isn’t that exactly what I already said? Of course I “remember” it if I said it.
Some people are willing to work for peanuts; some are not. There’s nothing wrong with that, either way. For my part, I choose to get paid what I’m worth, so I work for a company that can afford me. If someone is willing to make less, that’s their prerogative. Again, there’s nothing wrong with it.
As for your “for 99.9% For 99.9% of the population this is never ever likely to happen” comment, again, I’m not sure what your point is. 99.9% of any population isn’t “likely” to make a living doing any one thing. That’s why everyone has different jobs. There are no get-rich-quick schemes in RL, and there are none in SL either. There’s an old saying, “the only place one can become wealthy without hard work is the lottery line”, and we all know what the chances of that are. Anyone who comes into SL thinking they’re instantly gonna make a lot of money is kidding themselves, and you can hardly blame that on SL’s marketing. Promoting it as a place where you CAN make money is quite a bit different from saying you WILL make money. Last I checked, they don’t say you WILL, anywhere.
And I hate to break it to you, but your comment about the risk of self-employment was a bit off the mark. Working for someone else, as you are, is no less risky. Remember Enron? Remember Adelphia? Remember Exxon before they cut the company in half in one day in the late 80’s? All those people thought their jobs were pretty secure.
When you work for someone else, you’re putting your faith in the fact that everyone else in the company will do their part to make sure you still have a place to work tomorrow, from the president to the guy who sweeps the floor. When you work for yourself, you only have to put your faith in one person, you. I’m not self employed anymore, but I was for most of my adult life (from age 18 to age 30), and I can promise you it’s no more risky than anything else. There’s absolutely no such thing as a “secure job”.
March 21st, 2007 at 1:00 PM
It’s good to see that the DD is still going - but it’s a bit like voice (literally, the application form says you have to be prepared to talk on the phone with customers). I can think of several good developers who can’t apply because they’re part of, or have built projects for, the sex/Gor/etc. businesses, and don’t want that linked to their real player; and while they could technically transfer their un-sex-related projects to an alt, some of these projects are well known enough that many people would be obviously “tipped off” by a sudden change in the name of the support contact. (And they were completed before the DD existed.) I guess it has to be that way for doing RL consultancy, but it’s still kind of awkward.
April 6th, 2007 at 4:32 PM
Broccoli, we do have search. We’re looking at ways to continue to provide better access and granularity, and may be moving to the sort of checkbox that you describe.
Yumi, yes, one’s past does tend to follow one. This will become even more apparent when we start adding a “recently completed projects’ section to the listing.
Thank you all for your comments and input.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:38 PM
While the survet seems to hold real impressive information I cant get over one important link, at least for me. How ong was the survey run, and during this time what fluctuation was there within the exchange rate of Linden to ALL currencies, RL? I keep in mind that for a country who can purchase many lindens at a cheaper rate due to their currency standards power in the world market, and then make a profit while currency standards drop. The profit would seem remarlable when it was in fact pennines on the dollar. There si not enough substantial, factual evidence to validate a claim that any company is making a large profit in the data format given. Nor is there any way to confimr that the answers are valid in the report. However teh article does give a gope that players who are interrested, can work their way ito a job making money in SL.
ANY survey if a depiction of the authors intended perception, and while tey may be trying to find the truth, the way they see the data, is how they wil bend logic to explain it to others.
If SL marketing and asthetic principles are used, you can HELP increase the attention to your business. If the business provides articles or services that residents are willing to spend LINDEN on, then you can make a profit in Linden. If your profit is Linden is exchanged in favorable market to your currency rates, you can make a RL profit. and IF your are proficient enough you can support your livelyhood this way.
Seems to me though the porpose of such a survey to me the purpose of such a survey should be to determine the likelyhood of success. With so many ifs, and the inability to gather al the data in a reasonable manner of time with the accuracy insured. The Survey becomes less factually based, than theoretical stimulation.
But thank you, the survey and discussion onit were stimulating.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Seems to me like i arrived in one of George A. Romano films “Night Of The Living Dead” people seem happy to let lindens do as they please regardless of the cost to their integrity, I Would like to congratulate Lindens for their amazing brainwashing exercise they call Second Life.I too was a zombie sleeping walking to the Linden tune.No longer !!!
Wake up people !!!!!
Space Wide Awake Rockett.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:02 AM
This page contains a single entry by Editor Wireless and Mobile News published on September 25, 2007 11: 04 AM.