Second Life Growth Slows Slightly In March, But Still Exploding

Second Life saw a 2% decline in the rate of growth for premium accounts. Those are accounts where users pay $9.95 per month, as opposed to the much more common free accounts. The rate of growth was 13% in March, as opposed to 15% in February, according to analysis by Second Life Insider.

"[F]rankly companies in many industries would drool over growth rates like this, especially this far along into Second Life's ... well, life," says the Second Life Insider author, who goes by the name "Tateru Nino," who also notes that Linden Lab is now profitable.

More stats from Nino's analysis: The average age of Second Life users is getting younger, from 37 to 30 this year.

That's surprising -- we don't usually associate emerging technology with the over-30 crowd.

Follow the link for Tateru's analysis (above) and to the original stats page to dig deeper, including statistics on the size of the Second Life economy and geography.

How's it going on that collapse, Valleywag. Should be any minute now, right?