Friday, 7 November 2008

Virtual Worlds Popularizing 3D Graphic Design Industry, Finds In-Stat

According to market research firm In-Stat, just like blogging and the ability to comment on news items online are, in essence, popularizing and decentralizing the news industry, so too are virtual worlds popularizing and decentralizing the gaming, meeting, and 3D graphic design industries.

In-Stat classifies virtual world under the Web 3.0 category because of their profound ability to integrate multiple types of content, information sources, and feeds into one highly engaging and interactive format.

"Evidence supports the conclusion that the killer application that is critical to virtual worlds-and, by extension, to Web 3.0-is, in fact, already here and it is none other than social networking," said Vahid Dejwakh, In-Stat analyst.

The research conducted by In-Stat found the following:

· Total registered users of virtual worlds are expected to exceed 1 billion and total revenue is expected to exceed USD 3 billion by 2012.

· 70 percent of the more than 300 million registered users of virtual worlds are younger than 18.

· Virtual world companies earn close to 90 percent of their revenue from the sale of virtual items, currency, land, and fees associated with these items.