The Economic Recession

It's no surprise that we are in an economic recession - no matter where you live in the world it seems. But seeing as IMVU is an American based company, we'll just focus on that.

Times are hard here. We're literally seeing one of the worst recessions since the Depression Era. Countless people are without jobs. Some people are losing their homes because they can't afford their mortgage and property taxes this year. Companies are downsizing due to their inability to pay all of their workers and countless businesses will shut down this year. With everyone tightening their belts, there is little (if any) extra money in budget for luxuries like buying credits to spend on virtual products.

What does this mean for members of the community (like myself) who create content in our virtual world in order to pay the bills? It means either finding a "real" job or expanding our horizons in any direction we can - including migrating to other worlds such as Second Life. In fact, you'll find many of your favorite developers now - some have moved there permanently while others are working hard to create content in both worlds.

But for those of us sticking it out here on IMVU, it means a lot of hard work - not all of which seems to pay off. Big name developers like Lollirot once claimed to make 100k in a day. We know those numbers are possible. We've seen many developers achieve such numbers in the "glory days" and the old Pro requirements dictated such numbers. But what about now?

Once upon a time, I myself made 60k daily and despite a much larger catalog with better products and more marketing, those numbers don't seem to be possible any more. On average, a "big" developer like myself is looking at 25-30k per 24 hours on average from catalog sales. That's not a lot of money considering the resell value of 100k is only $46. Meaning - despite how many hours I work, I wouldn't make enough for a part time job these days. In order to make ends meet, I have had to start selling my graphic services in the form of File Sales in the Product & Content Request forum.

And what about Credit Resellers? Tidy of DevCredits.com has reported a significant drop in credit sales - a whopping 15% down from just last month. Credit Resellers are the lifeline of Content Creators who are looking to turn their hard work into cash. If they cannot find customers to sell our earned credits to, then the cycle comes to a screeching hault and Creators will go unpaid.

We're in an interesting place right now. Only time will tell which way the door will swing. Let's hope that in months to come, the recession will pass and IMVU will be returned to its glory days once again.

If interested, here is a list of some of the developers you can find on Second Life. Not all listed here are active and not all of them develop in SL.
►Pop
►Lassarina
►Lollirot
►Keef
►Mercuria
►MsOrgasmic
►Ewe
►Miranda
►Cindypoo
►Bitter
►CaptainLust
►Scarling
►Mechadollie