Why moving a shop to Marketplace ‘hurts’ the SL economy.

 

Pussycat Catnap has a post that expresses some of my misgivings over Marketplace very well.

Why moving a shop to Marketplace ‘hurts’ the SL economy..

I try my best to shop in-world whenever possible. Often I will do without rather than buy sight unseen on Marketplace.

The only use I really have for Marketplace is as a product index, not a perfect one by any means, but way better than in world search.

This is a very thoughtful analysis of Mainland vs. Private Estates from the Linden Lab business perspective. The conclusion is very surprising, but hard to argue with.

Pussycat Catnap's thoughts

A not entirely complete thought here. But one I’m working on.

I’ve seen it written many times by residents of Second Life that estates are the land-profit center for Linden Lab, and the loss of estates while mainland is growing is a bad thing for the health of the grid.

I’m not convinced. But I am open to seeing numbers that show me where I am missing the point.

Here is how I see it:

Volume is what is key. Better to have a lot of low paying customers than one higher paying one.

This is both good in raw profit numbers, and stability.

Show me the the money:

How many mainland residents does it take to equal one estate?

If we assume the average mainlander owns 2048+base 512 (probably they own less, but some own vastly more…) for $15/month – and if we assume every one of…

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