Kids website into virtual nuggets hot latest stop

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As the web begins redefining "childhood," penguin clubs are the latest in the virtual Nuggets craze

Until now, Americans have been immersed in the success of MySpace, Facebook and Second Life. But after winning the media high attention, these sites began to encounter ads and users of the reverse attack bottlenecks. Canadians, by contrast, seem smarter. Instead of competing for the already fierce market for adults, they have expanded the success of social networking sites and virtual communities into another area: underage children.

In August 2007, Disney announced a 350 million-dollar takeover of the "Penguin Club" of three Canadian-created children's websites, such as Leni Merrifield. If the 350 million dollar investment that the site can win after two years of achieving a certain operating goal is counted, a whopping $700 million trillion price will dwarf Mr Murdoch's big deal to buy MySpace as a hit.

And since Ganz, a private company headquartered in Toronto, launched the Webkinz Doll in the spring of 2005, The fluffy animal toys that allow children to log in with their webkinz.com and play with their virtual pets and take care of them have quickly become one of the most popular toys for children of primary age. Every holiday, many children in the first thing after getting a gift is to rush to the computer to log in Wenkinz, activate their pets.

When Leila Rodriguez, a 10-Year-old girl with 4 Webkinz Pet dolls, hopes to get 10 dolls in exchange for a premium bed in the website, her 7-year-old brother Jared's dream is to become a paid member of the Penguin Club, Spend 5.95 dollars a month to collect some gadgets to decorate the virtual dome of his virtual penguin habitat.

Lila and Jared may not be able to fulfill their wishes because their father thinks it is not worth the money to pay for the virtual things. Silvia Madellin may have thought so, but her 6-year-old son, Trever Penet, successfully persuaded the mother to pay for him with a string of friends whose names were already members of the club. Soon, the pet's virtual penguin not only has the ornate dome hut, but also has its own virtual pet.

These virtual worlds are increasingly becoming true elements of modern children's real life, in which they feed their pets, play roles, play games, and chat with friends. Virtual Child community is now the "Second Life" and more than 10 years ago rage electronic Pet combination, the great success of the Penguin Club and Webkinz not only to the numerous successor to imitate, many traditional companies also began to replicate this model. Mattel, the world's largest toy maker, released its social networking site, Barbiegirls, in 2007 to create and dress up virtual characters for Barbie owners, and chatting and online shopping is certainly essential.

According to emarketer, a research firm, 8.2 million children are now members of the virtual community, a figure that will grow to 20 million in 2011. Clearly, the child world has become the next stop for the virtual world Gold rush, and many players in the children's entertainment industry are preparing for the coming storm.

The true power of virtual penguins

Leni Merrifield, co-founder and CEO of the Penguin Club, told global entrepreneur that they never thought it would become part of Disney when they created the children's website. It was true that there were few sites or communities that reassured parents about children, and that it was the club's intention to build a secure online playground where children could be assured of playing and interacting with each other, and that children would enjoy it and benefit from it in the process of growing up. If kids in other parts of the world find Penguin clubs and help them succeed, we'll see it as an extra bonus. ”

The club's team consulted educators, legal representatives and other parents and conducted extensive research and testing on children's online safety. After 8 months of effort, the Penguin Club was opened to the public in October 2005, with an initial user of 25000 people.

Although the original motivation stemmed from a strong personal desire, things developed beyond the Merrifield's imagination. Child users and their parents soon spread the Penguin club's reputation, and less than half a year ago, it boarded the world's largest online gaming website, Miniclip, and quickly became the most popular game. By the summer of 2007, the club had 700,000 paid subscribers and more than 12 million active users, with traffic exceeding the sum of the two virtual communities of "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft", earning around 50 million dollars a year. It is said that Sony and News Corp have expressed "interest" worth 400 million of dollars before Disney reached the olive branch.

If there is any other company that can match or compete with the Penguin Club, then Ganz. "Webkinz" ranked second in Google's 2007 Top ten search terms (Penguin club sixth), after the IPhone. In November 2007, more than 6 million of independent visitors logged on to Webkinz, up 342% from a year earlier, and the visitors spent more than 1 million hours on the site. Although Ganz does not disclose financial data to the outside, analysts expect Webkinz doll sales to exceed 100 million dollars.

The success of the Wenkinz doll attracted a large number of imitators. By the end of 2007, at least 8 companies were duplicating Webkinz's idea of connecting reality toys to the web. To ensure his leadership, Ganz began experimenting with more new things. In addition to plush toys, Wenkinz enthusiasts can also buy 7.5-dollar lip balm, 9 dollars per bottle of Mango Body spray and a variety of small ornaments, bookmarks, clothing and so on. These things have their own account, can be online to use on the Virtual Pet Prize or prize. Different types of outlets, such as gift shops and supermarkets, have broadened the way the Webkinz are sold, but Ganz has begun to shrink the number of sales agents that sell toys to smaller shops to make it easier for parents to buy Webkinz dolls and turn them into more popular mass products. Another noteworthy area is Webkinz's strict control over playtime, a strategy that has inspired parents to "want more", and is one of the secrets of a successful web site.

Despite great success, Webkinz is not perfect. In addition to being criticized for inducing children to spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, security and privacy are always the biggest problems with virtual children's websites. In October 2007, Webkinz began hanging out "bee story" movie ads, two months later, "Alvin and the Chipmunks", when the user logged in, they will be on the right side of the homepage of the site to see these ads. When advertising for Bee story, the website also introduced a bee costume to dress up a virtual pet. The move has sparked strong protests by many parents and organizations concerned with children's issues. In their view, for a toy that could cost just 15 cents to spend 15 of dollars to protect children from commercial advertising, Webkinz movie ads are tantamount to sacrificing children's interests to maximize their income.

By contrast, the Penguin club's approach seems wiser. "Despite the fact that advertising has a place in our lives, we want to focus on playing games and making friends, so we are firmly committed to the ' no third party advertising ' policy, given that the Penguin Club is positioned for 6-14-year-old children. Merrifield to global entrepreneur. But shielding advertising and stringent security censorship and privacy policies still do not protect penguin clubs from criticism, for the beloved parents, any virtual child community site itself is inherently deficient: all of these sites are intrinsically driven by money, and every move is tempting children to ask their parents for more money, Buy more things. #p # Paging Title #e#

Karen Messen, a spokesman for the Penguin club, said the verdict was "absurd": "What we do is teach children to make smart decisions that they need in the real world." "It's true. Despite the club's loyal user, Trevor's father, George Penet, who summed up the site as "teaching children to spend", the 53-year-old Country Club Counselor also thanked the Penguin Club for teaching his son to earn his own virtual currency by working (like unloading virtual sacks from virtual trucks).

Mickey Mouse on Broadband

The giants of the children's entertainment chain have long noted the impact of the growing virtual child community, and Disney's sky-high takeover of Penguin clubs suggests they are starting to accelerate the layout of the area. This is a very good deal for both parties: the club can use Disney's global resources and influence to reach the international (currently its main users are still concentrated in Canada and the United States, but plans to launch the British version this spring), and Disney can enhance online entertainment, especially the virtual child Community's strength.

In fact, Disney is one of the first companies to enter the virtual children's community, as early as 2003 released a large multiplayer online role-playing game "Toontown on-line." At the beginning of 2007, Disney launched an extremely gorgeous new version of disney.com based on the latest broadband technology, offering all the services from video-on-demand, gaming, community, social networking sites, user-generated content to a list of personal media on a single web site. In November 2007, Disney launched the online game "Pirates of the Caribbean" for children over the age of 10 and will release the "Disney Fairies" (Disney Fairies) for girls in 2008. Disney on the Internet, like the real Disney, whether you are a boy or a girl, and what age, there is always a brand or a product for you.

Overall, Disney plans to build an entertainment network that links its many brands, allowing users to access Disney content anytime, anywhere, through a variety of platforms such as virtual worlds and online games, and to communicate across platforms through network centers connected to mobile devices such as computers and mobile phones, games consoles, and so on.

This strategy is based on the fact that the traditional business model of children's entertainment industry is fading. Television has been the forefront of children's entertainment industry for nearly 50 years since the start of the Saturday morning animation. The children saw Mickey Mouse on TV, knew Buzz Lightyear in movies or DVDs, and went to shops and Disneyland to find the right product. But now everything is different.

Sales of television programs and film platters have tended to stabilise or even fall, and the once-powerful growth engines have been hit by the network's channel of distribution of entertainment content. Giants such as Disney, Warner Bros. and Viacom are starting to see online gaming and social networking sites as a new way to keep profits growing. Under the pressure of the network, the biggest players begin to rethink how they interact with children and young people. Viacom, the parent of child TV channel Nichlodien (Nickelodeon), bought the popular virtual pet site "The Neo Pet Station" (Neopets) in 2005 with 150 million dollars.

For the media giants, it's hard to find a better choice than online games and virtual worlds. Once these sites are on track, they can achieve low costs and high returns. There is another fatal temptation: Making TV and movie characters into children's lives is an excellent way to instill brand loyalty into the next generation of consumers.

The virtual child community has become one of the fastest growing businesses in the network industry. Although the commercial market value of children has not yet been accurately assessed, a report published in 2005 by market research firm Packaged Facts said that in the United States alone, 29,000,008 to 14 years of age children are spending more than $40 billion a year, let alone the impact on household consumption. Now, 90% of these children are on the Internet, and websites that attract their attention and interest are clearly not lacking in rewards.

If the virtual world is an adult fleeing from mediocre real life, the virtual child community satisfies the child's desire to escape parental control and restrictions. These virtual games and images, which look like rage but very easy to dissipate, actually mean a fundamental shift in children's behavior. Despite the success of Penguin clubs and Wenkinz, the virtual child world is still a market that has not yet been fully tapped, just like the MP3 of a few years ago. As parents struggle to adapt to the needs of their children for computers and networks and try to figure out what it means to buy them virtual magic or sunglasses, players in the children's entertainment industry have been using this as a weapon to start a new generation of consumers.