Facebook ain’t got nothin’ on Second Life, Blue Mars, Stardoll, Habbo, and other virtual worlds.The population of those places, where people buy and sell goods made out of bits, chat with each other, and do sundry other strange things, has hit 1 billion, up 350 million from this time last year.Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of the most popular and largest worlds: Habbo, with over 175 million accounts, is the biggest, and, for those under 15, Stardoll is the most popular, with 69 million registered users.Around half of the virtual universe population are between the ages of 10 and 15; the second largest group is 15 to 25 year olds, The number of people over the age of 25 on virtual worlds isn’t increasing very fast, but the numbers have still almost doubled since 2009And, inevitably, here comes the really gross part:[Research firm] KZero identifies the 15 to 25 age bracket as “the one to watch” over the next year, as “With an active user base as large as Habbo’s it’s the perfect testing ground for emerging initiatives such as branded virtual goods, simulcasting/real-event integration and product extension.”Which begs the question: would Facebook ever launch its own virtual world? And if it did, to become the superpower of virtual worlds, shouldn’t it connect to other worlds, the way airplanes and trains can take us to foreign countries?viaReadWriteWeb
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