Quick Stat: 8 Billion Minutes of Voice Used in Second Life

When Linden Lab began the process of adding voice from Vivox to Second Life early last year, some observers were skeptical that in a world of anonymity, many users would want to use their real voice. As it turns out, 3D voice for communication and collaboration is, to put it lightly, pretty useful. In a Q&A with Venture Beat Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon said that in the  year since its launch, Second Life users have logged over 8 billion minutes of voice communication. WIth the launch of SLim for lightweight communication, that's sure to increase. And, as former CTO Corey Ondrejka points out, its set to to give Skype a run for, well, probably not its money, but at least its stats.

"In August, we served our 8 billionth minute of in-world voice, a year after it was introduced. Looking forward to the next 12 months, we are on a run rate of 22 billion minutes," Kingdon said. "It is a free service today. We see opportunities to expand the service and add dimensions we can charge for. It has had wide adoption and I use it a few hours a day myself. We are spread out and so we do our company meetings in the world. Our revenue comes from the sale of land." [Via Venture Beat]