I’m discussing (towards the end) the recent Google StreetView patent relating to ad overlays and the implications of real/virtual world advertising.

The most popular user age in SmallWorlds is 14, accounting for 14% of the total. 15 and 19 years vie for second place, with early to mid 20’s also holding their own.

Again we have an interesting mini-peak at age 29. This mini-peak can also be seen in Miss Bimbo AND Club Cooee. Hmmm – interesting. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Here’s the cumulative chart for SmallWorlds.

Half of the users are aged 17 and under and 30% are aged 20 or older.

In terms of countries, this is shown in the next chart.

As observed, the US is the dominant driver of the users with over 60% of the total.

The rest of the countries, including the UK which is normally ‘up their’ in terms of users are in the noise.

The highest represented age proportionately for registered and active users is 19, with mid to late teens also well represented.

Looking at paying users presents a slightly different profile and demonstrates the fact that conversion (from active to paying) increases with age. Nothing ground breaking in this conclusion but it’s always nice to see this shown graphically.

Paying users are shown by the orange line in the chart and the trend to track is how this line relates to the red (active) and registered (burgundy).

Up to age 18, paying users are under represented compared to registered/active, meaning monetisation/conversion is harder for these younger users. However, as the paying line tracks above registered and active post 18 years, it shows the higher ability to monetise.

The first chart below shows the age profiles cumulatively and the second is the top 10 countries.

Picking a data point to look at, for active accounts, 60% of them age 17 and under.

This compares to 18 years old accounting for 60% of the registered accounts. And, for paying users, 60% of them are aged 22 and under.

The USA and UK jointly account for over 40% of registered accounts. Brazil pops into third place but is quite a way behind the first two.

We have a media pack containing more detailed insight Miss Bimbo, which can be requested here.

With an average user age of 15.9, Peru tops the chart, followed by Malaysia.

Inversely, the Netherlands has the overall lowest average user age with 13, followed by Belgium.

Can we draw conclusions from this chart. That’s what the colour-coding is for.

It would appear the the Scandinavian countries combined have a low (compared to others) average user age. Let’s remember that the parent company (Sulake) is based in Finland and was launched their first in 2000. This could imply that older target market users in these countries get into Habbo at a comparative earlier age and then migrate to older worlds – they might be a little more familiar with virtual worlds than users in countries from South American for example, that combined has an older average age.

The broad conclusion here being that the lesser developed the country or region, the higher average user age. By lesser developed we mean a lower broadband and PC penetration with a generally less internet savvy population. Of course, other factors do come into play here such as awareness of specific virtual worlds and unique nuances per country.

Here’s the chart showing aggregated average ages per major region in support of this conclusion….

Here’s the user base age profile:

The spike around age 19 is probably explained by users thinking they get additional features/services/access by indicating they’re over 18 years old.

Factoring this blip out, it’s clear that Club Cooee resonates well into early to mid teens. However, the gradual decline from this sweetspot age range shows that this world is well represented right through to the early 20’s.

Here’s the cumulative chart.

40% of the Club Cooee users are 18 or under. 60% are 22 years or under.

And, picking up on a point made earlier, flipping this last data-point around, 40% of the user base are over 22 – that’s a wide spread of users.

Over the years we’ve seen some pretty examples of the disparity between the two when it actually comes to the user experience. Perhaps this time around LEGO Universe will live up to the hype. [Insert corny joke about the competition bricking it].

First up, the headline chart, total unique active users from 2009 to 2013.

The 2009 year end forecast for active users in the virtual worlds sector is 136m (compared to circa 750m total registered accounts). This has been calculated by assessing the active user data we hold for a range of large (and small) virtual worlds, combined with research relating to users having accounts across multiple worlds (to take out duplicates).

We expect 2010 to be a major year for virtual world growth, both from new worlds coming to market supported by major marketing pushes, along with a pick-up in the overall economy and a continuation of increasing awareness and resonance towards the sector.

The next chart shows our forecast by age band, following the same banding as our Universe charts.

The five to ten year old group currently has 20m active users according to our calculations, growing to 46m in 2010 and up to 95m in 2013. Of all the age ranges, this is group we expect lowest future growth in, compared to other ranges.

The ten to 15 year old age band according to our forecast will be the largest growth area, from 61m in 2009 through to 289m in 2011 and 722m in 2013. The table at the bottom of this post contains forecasted active user numbers by band and year.

User forecasts proportionately are shown in the chart below.

Expansion of the 25+ year old group is interesting and driven by three areas.

Firstly simple aging of users (applicable of course to all age bands) but most prevalent between 15-25’s and 25+.

Secondly, the 25+ year old marketplace is currently underserved by virtual worlds. We expect genres such as dating, gaming and gambling to successfully penetrate this age range, as discussed in our Virtual Worlds 2010+ report.

The third facet contributing to growth in the 25+ segment will be B2B/Enterprise platforms as we see a ramp-up in adoption. We foresee services such as the easy creation of photo-realistic avatars being key drivers for adoption in the enterprise space.

Here’s the data table.

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The chart below presents the specific age profiles for these three virtual words.

The wider overall age spread of Moshi Monsters is clearly shown, peaking at the 10-11 spots. Poptropica follows a similar pattern to Moshi, albeit in a tighter age band.

And the penetration into younger ages achieved by Jumpstart also stands out.

The chart below shows this data on a cumulative user base basis.

Looking at the data this way demonstrates how close the Poptropica and Moshi Monsters user bases actually are, with the trend lines extremely similar.

Turning to Jumpstart, on a point by point basis this virtual world is on average four years younger than the other two.

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It’s more of a ridge than a peak, with ages five to nine well represented in the range of 13% to 11% of the total user base.

This spread of ages is explained by the feature-sets and positioning of the Jumpstart world, with different games and activities available in-world catering to different age groups.

So, rather than focusing in on a specific small age band, this approach of appealing to a wider spread results in resonance with a larger range. The cumulative user age is shown by age in the chart below.

Clearly Jumpstart has a younger user base than most other virtual worlds, with almost 50% of these users aged six and younger.

In fact, just over 80% are nine and younger.

Next up, Habbo, SmallWorlds and IMVU.

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