Disney's ClubPenguin now

Penguins at your house might not notice, but ClubPenguin's moving into the Disney igloo. "Disney said it would pay $350 million in cash for the website aimed at 6-to-14-year-old kids. As much as $350 million more will be added if the Canadian company's founders reach profit targets through 2009," the Los Angeles Times reports. Here's the Associated Press on this development.

Social-networking training wheels

Remember Beanie Babies? Cabbage Patch Dolls? Well, now there’s Webkinz. The only (significant) difference is Webkinz have a social site/virtual world for their young owners – kind of a starter MySpace for people below its minimum age. “Last year, Webkinz brought in more than $45 million in retail in the U.S.,” CNET reports. The writer went through hoops to acquire her Webkinz, named Cneta, then more to register at the site, where – like all members - she started with 2,000 units of “KinzCash,” which goes fast because next she needs to decorate Cneta’s room in the site and accessorize her new virtual pet. She bought Cneta “a salmon strudel feast for Cneta, as well as a batch of her favorite food, marshmallows, rainbow-patterned boots, a blue striped bed set, a scooter and some horn-rimmed specs.” She quickly needed more KinzCash for all this self-expression, and she could earn it by playing games in the site, passing quizzes, and doing virtual jobs. Communications on the site is even more restricted than on ClubPenguin. “The only way to communicate with a Webkinz owner, it turns out, is if you already know someone with an account,” which would probably be good news to many parents of Webkinz owners. But not all parents are thrilled with the product/service – see the article for more (including photos). And here’s the big picture on kid social worlds from Business 2.0.

Barbie vs. the penguins

Even though she reigned supreme on Web 1.0, as more and more kid-oriented virtual worlds like ClubPenguin and WebKinz open on the Web, Barbie’s struggling to keep up, according to a CNET analysis. “Mattel's Barbie.com and EverythingGirl.com have the highest concentration of girls age 2 to 11 on the Web, according to researcher Nielsen NetRatings, but their overall audience hasn't grown much over the years.” It adds that Barbie.com got about 1.9 million unique visitors last month, down from 2.1 million in April 2006 (ClubPenguin attracted 4 million visitors, Webkinz 3.6 million, and Neopets 3.2 million last month). This summer Mattel’s coming out with an MP3 player “that can be accessorized like a doll and used to unlock special animations, make friends and shop in a virtual world on the Web.” Here’s an item on Sony’s rumored interest in acquiring ClubPenguin at tech news site GigaOm.com.