M talks good again. He seems to be a better speaker than both Philip and (definitely) Mitch. By "better," I mean one who seems to be speaking from the planet earth.
He also seems to - hmmm let me doublecheck - seems to consider the "traditional personal user" (traditionally defined by me as "us") part of LL's "core market":
That includes the traditional personal user of Second Life, which is typically someone in their 30s, as well as the 'enterprise segment,' which addresses the many corporations that use Second Life for conferencing, job fairs and other business applications. And finally there are the educators . . . "
Yep - *counts on fingers* - traditional users, corporations, and educators. Three things. One of which is us. One out of three = one-third of the things named. One-third of the things named is surely important. He even named us first!
Looks to me like we are still viable!
Seems to me that Mark wouldn't be officially defining us as part of LL's "core market" if in fact we weren't actually supporting LL with our money. He is recognizing our money. He SEES it there. And has no need to wish it away, apparently.
That's why it was extremely poor business sense for Mitch to tell the personal users that they are old hat and no longer needed, and should just slink back into their misfit caves.
But seems to me that, kinda like the man in the late-night commercial for Ex-tenz, M knows we're big, and "isn't embarassed to admit it."
Which group pays LL the most?
I would just love and adore to see how much of their profit comes from corporations, how much from us, and how much from educators.
(One would assume not much from educators, since they get
SL at at discount.)
I think it's pretty certain that we (the traditional personal users) paid for LL throughout most of its life. That it is we who eventually paid back the investors, brought LL into the black, and enabled them to both improve the product and woo the corporations. (Not to mention we built the whole damn place.)
But I also figure that we still account for more LL income than the other two segments of the "core market."
Anyone got any figures on this? Any guesses?
I'm willing to look at just the few months or even the most recent month alone. Show me that more of LL's income has come from corporations than from us, and I'm willing to overlook the first four or five years and consider corporate domination a new "trend".
But nothing in what Mark said indicates that is the case. All he has said is they have defined three segments of their core market, and I'm thrilled he considers us one of them.
And I doubt that the corporate sector supports LL more than we do. I wouldn't be surprised to see that the corporations account for only a small percentage of LL income, but I'm willing to be proved wrong.
***
Mark's interview here goes a long way toward repairing my opinion of LL since the Mitch debacle. I have actually mentally been distancing myself from
SL since Mitch's speech; spending more of my free time on scrapbooking, etc., hoping to see if I couldn't just manage to sort of drift away, and therefore not give any more money to people who insult me. Ya know?
I want to still give my money to LL. But . . . well, you know. I HOPE I can still give my money to LL. M's speech helps me do that.
In any case, Mark seems to have a lot more common sense than Mitch (or even Philip), and a lot less arrogance, yet seems to have plenty of enthusiasm and optimism. He also seems to respect his customers, thinks they are real, and thinks their money does count.
(If I never hear from Mitch again, it will be too soon.)
coco