Children's application market is promising and growing rapidly

Absrtact: If you see a baby playing the ipad before you learn to walk or call your mother, you can feel the world changing fast. The children of the past are the digital generation, and the children who are born with a intuitive response to the touchscreen today are mobile generations. Smart Hands

If you see a baby playing the ipad before you learn to walk or call it "Mom," You can feel the world changing fast. The children of the past are "the digital generation", so the children who are born with a intuitive response to the touchscreen today are "moving generation." Smartphones and tablets are by far the most interactive and easy-to-use electronic device, while intuitive interaction and rich media content have an irresistible appeal to children.

Children born in the mobile age have brought huge business opportunities to the market for the word content. "My child is only 1 years old, but he's been dragging the icons on my smartphone 3 months ago," said Caleb Clark, director of the Graduate School of Education and Technology at Marlboro College, Bu Clark, "I'll pick some apps for his mother's approval. ”

Founded by the animation studio JibJab founder Spiridles Brothers, Storybots is a new player in the field of child applications. Gregg Spiridellis, co-founder of the company, said in an interview with CNBC television that "the Gregg Spiridles of the way our children are exposed to the media has changed dramatically and we have seen this, so we ask ourselves what it would be like if Sesame Street was born in the age of mobile devices." ?”

Storybot The answer is "you do the Lead" ebook and video program, children can participate in every story, the company's products since its launch last September has been millions of users. Storybots provides a borderless, ad-free online world for children. Most competitors use the Sales application model, while Storybots gives users access to all content with a 4.99 dollar monthly fee.

Of course, PBS children's TV and Sesame Studios have launched their own children's apps. and small startups like Scholastic Interactive, Toca Boca, Ocean House and leapfrog are looking for opportunities in this area.

With the advent of the fourth birth peak, the growth potential of children-related consumer markets for clothing, food, education, training and entertainment is not to be underestimated, according to a new study published by IDC. Based on the PC-side children's games, video, animation, education and other applications, based on mobile internet children's entertainment and education apps, has become a large number of Internet bosses and start-ups focus on the market. IDC predicts that 2013, children's games, children's online education-related Internet application market will become one of the vertical market competition, will also cause the continued attention of the capital market.

The children's application market is promising and growing rapidly. Tablets are taking the place of PCs, which, according to IDC, a market-research firm, grew by 142% in the first quarter of this year, while PC shipments fell 14% per cent, the biggest drop ever. Several agencies have predicted that tablet shipments will overtake PCs this year.

In the first two years after the ipad was released, more than 25% of parents downloaded children's apps for their children, according to a study led by Sesame Studios last year. Since 2009-2012, the proportion of child apps in the best-selling list has grown from 50% to around 75%.

Sesame Studio was founded in 1968, the creation of the TV program "Sesame Street" has won a total of 122 Emmy Awards, is the world's largest Emmy Award television programs. In recent years, the studio has also developed a number of child applications.

Sesame Street has been actively involved in the development of tablets and other mobile device applications, and has launched a number of interactive versions of the classic electronic children's books. So far, Sesame Street has introduced more than 50 applications and e-books for mobile touch devices.

Mindy Brooks Mindy Brooks, director of education and research at Sesame Street Studios, says that the key to children's e-books is to increase interactivity; it is best to have parents or other people to accompany the child to read. But the reality is that modern family parents are both more common in the workplace, so children's e-books or other applications should create a virtual role instead of parents to better guide their children to learn or play.

The tablet computer in the classroom

Tablet computers are reshaping the education industry. Recently, media reported that the San Diego District School had placed a large order with Apple and ordered 26000 ipads. "Tablets are a good educational tool," said William Weil, a tales2go CEO William Vey, a company focused on educational audio readings in Washington.

"Imagine how easy it is to use and maintain a tablet relative to a PC," he said, and that the contents of the tablet were easier to control.

But is tablet computers really good for children? The American Academy of Pediatrics has raised strong objections to the use of any electronic media by children under two years of age and has warned of excessive indulgence of children in the media. "Free games are better for children's brains than any electronic media," the group said. ”

"We want to be vigilant about all the media and games labeled ' educational '," Hillary Livi Friedman Hilary Levey Friedman. She is a Harvard sociologist who focuses on children and family Education research, and her new book, "Winning in the game: How to raise children in a competitive culture" will be published this year.

Friedman in the interview brought up the children's program "Little Einstein" caused by the uproar. "Scientific research has shown that viewing so-called ' educational ' DVDs may impair children's ability to learn language. ”

Recently, British media reported that a four-year-old British girl addicted to the ipad addiction, eventually suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, is now receiving psychiatric treatment, and her family in addition to worry about the high cost of treatment.

The young girl's attending doctor said that the cost of the ipad was 16000 pounds a month (about 150,000 yuan), and that the little girl might still need hospitalization.

Doctors say that children with an ipad addiction will be more addicted to playing with the ipad, and will feel frustrated and angry if they break off.

In recent years, there have been persistent media exposure to the long-term ipad caused by eye disease, and children, even before a two-year-old boy for a long time to play the ipad caused by 500 degrees of myopia.

"The world we live in is surrounded by screens," she says, and her 16-month-old child, "obsessed with the ipad," has now learned to unlock the screen. This is not a case, says Nielsen, a market research agency, which is the most popular gift of the holiday shopping season, with a majority of 6-12-year-olds hoping to have an ipad.

But Friedman not completely rejected the electronic media, she suggested, "use sparingly." But Clarke from Marlboro College says the impact of electronic media on children depends largely on parents.

"An interesting and instructive app, if it encounters an inadvertent parent or is used in the absence of a parent, will not be as good as the designer would have expected, even if the child is addicted to it," Clark said. If parents are active, a little educational app will also give children a healthy distraction. ”

The point, he says, is that "there is a website, a reliable person, an organization or a school that audits apps to ensure that children get good apps." ”

Spiridles says the decision making process for users to find and buy apps is always painful, and this is an important reason why Storybot subscribe, "Parents like to do ' one-stop shopping ' in places they trust." ”