Regardless, though, that means that the per user transaction rate is $700 per year on average - the incomes of people in a country also reflect multiple spends of the same dollar, which is why velocity of money is so critical to an economy and why free flowing credit is so important to make sure people and businesses keep spending even in the face of short term flow stop ups.
That's an incredible amount of spending per user, if true. Especially sine all of that money could be converted to real world cash with relatively little friction, unlike most in-game currencies.
In niche MMOs it's not unusual for users to spend over 20 real dollars/month on micro transactions. I don't know what an average multiplier in terms of in-game transactions would be but 3x doesn't seem out of the question.
Certain groups pay significantly more then that. My university, for example, maintains an island for a particular unit (which I'm currently taking, spending quite a lot of time in SL) and that costs them upwards of low 5 figures a year, and I know absolutely that it's not the only place like it in existence, nor is it the biggest.
That's an incredible amount of spending per user, if true. Especially sine all of that money could be converted to real world cash with relatively little friction, unlike most in-game currencies.