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1
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- A Brief Overview Presented by
Tom Peters on January 25, 2008
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2
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- Club Penguin
- Webkinz
- Teen Second Life
- Whyville
- According to eMarketer, 20 million kids will belong to virtual worlds
by 2011 (up from 8.2 million now)
(Brooks Barnes, NY Times, 12/31/07)
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3
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- Product differentiation is so real-worldly
- Population segmentation (by age, gender, geographic location, etc.)
- Significant investment from for-profit companies that focus on
pre-adults (Disney, Nickelodeon, Lego, Mattel, etc.)
- How can libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions compete in
pre-adult virtual worlds?
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4
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- Mash-up of virtual environments, social networks, role-playing, and
online gaming
- Surrogate for TV, movies, and the mall?
- Blurring of fun and learning and creating?
- Do start-up and born-virtual companies stand a chance?
- Negative consequences for individual kids (obesity, addiction, etc.)?
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5
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- Whyvillians are very interested in having an in-world library
- VW’s may improve the creativity, social skills, and money management
skills of pre-adults
- Competition can be good
- Eventually there may be a market shake-out, consolidations, etc.
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Notes