By 2011, 80% of All Internet Users will have Virtual Avatars

An article by Victor Keegan of The Guardian, describes a new report from Gartner (an American IT consulting firm) which states that "80% of all Internet users will have virtual avatars by 2011."

The largest virtual world to date - Second Life - boasts approximately 9.1 million users. For those that don't know, users spend real US dollars to buy land, clothes and other goods to build up their Avatar. In the last number of months, a number of software developers have made over a million dollars selling their virtual developments.

While the Tech world has been talking about Second Life and virtual worlds for the last number of years, it seems that avatars still have a long way to go to breakthrough the mainstream.

That being said, advertisers are taking notice and starting to think about ways to break into these worlds. Harvard recently had an online forum within Second Life to discuss how marketers should advertise to virtual Avatars. It's an interesting read - worth checking out when thinking about what your avatar will look like in the next couple of years.

UPDATE - if you want to check out what Second Life users really look like, click here.