Comments on: Who has the best sand castle, and why?

Question: Who has the best sand castle, and why?

bingo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:20:48 -0800

What are the most successful social networking sites for children? Why have they succeeded? What are the worst? Why have they failed?

By: disillusioned

disillusioned — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:27:44 -0800

Club Penguin is supposed to be the top one.

It's a combination of absolute safety ("Ultimate Safe Chat" only allows players to communicate with pre-written phrases and can be optionally enforced by parents; "Open Chat" bans players who use any profanity), background-checked and monitored moderators, fun mini games, merchandising opportunities and everything else a kid would want in a virtual world.

It was bought by Disney a few years back.

Wiki entry.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:43:12 -0800

Club Penguin has over a million users and is touted by Disney as number 1. If you go to Disney's Corp site, you can read their press releases.

By: bingo

bingo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:54:25 -0800

This article says that Club Penguin "has achieved this remarkable subscriber and user growth with very limited marketing efforts, relying mostly on strong product and word of mouth awareness among kids."

Does anyone have more info about this...whether they started with an ad campaign, and whether they seeded word of mouth awareness in a particular way?

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:11:16 -0800

imbee is the first free social network designed for young people! imbee is a parent approved, teacher endorsed social networking site appropriate for kids and 'tweens.

By: box

box — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:29:05 -0800

Define 'children.' Because if we're talking about 12- and 13-year olds, I suspect that the most successful social networking sites are MySpace and Facebook.

By: box

box — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:50:39 -0800

Also, it seems like some of the most successful kids sites, like Neopets and Webkins, have some kind of Pokemonesque (or Simsesque, or WoWesque, if you prefer) collecting/customizing/etc. feature.

By: bingo

bingo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:33:55 -0800

box, how would you characterize that feature? The ability to customize one's avatar and virtual environment?

By: I_Love_Bananas

I_Love_Bananas — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:37:30 -0800

My son is 12 and loves Club Penguin.

He might not advertise it to his friends, but he's sure on it a lot.

By: sexymofo

sexymofo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:34:45 -0800

I am a 12 year old girl writing this response on my fathers account.

Some of the most popular ones are as follows..

Clubpenguin
VMK
CokeMusic
Habbo Hotel (And all Retros that go along with it, Retro= Hacked verison of Habbo Hotel)
Gaia Online
Maple Story
Mokitown
Neopets
Webkinz
Toontown
Playdo

Clubpenguin might be the most mentioned but is not always the most known. All of these are pretty popular through my peers and myself.

MySpace,Facebook,Blogger,Hi5, etc. etc. are not popular through the ages of 10-11 year old. 12 and up seem to be coming and making accounts here, although school does warn us about how dangerous these sites might be.

Each of these sites maintain the current audience yet none of them, except Club Penguin, gain much advertise audience.

The social aspect is the factor that make it succeed. I'm on these sites because my friends are on these sites. The ones that don't do well, at least with me and my friends, are ones that are too babyish or too restrictive. Although these restrictive/protective features might be good with parents, site designers need to know that its the kids that use the sites/play the games and not the parents.

By: bingo

bingo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:48:52 -0800

sexymofo, can you please ask your daughter to clarify this sentence:

Each of these sites maintain the current audience yet none of them, except Club Penguin, gain much advertise audience.

Is this about how much they advertise their services elsewhere?

Thanks

By: box

box — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:43:05 -0800

box, how would you characterize that feature? The ability to customize one's avatar and virtual environment?

Not only the ability to customize one's avatar and virtual environment, but also the existence of certain items which are only available through some kind of dedication or effort or whatnot. The various Animal Crossing games do this really well.

And sexymofo's daughter, I think, is exactly right with what she calls the social aspect, and what I believe the scientists call network effects.