I've been checking out social networking sites for kids. Although the idea seems like a natural it's a more challenging market than for adults because of extra concerns about safety, privacy, and marketing. From the business perspective these add cost and complexity that can slow the growth rate and concern investors.
I haven't covered the full spectrum of options yet, but so far it seems like this is one area of the web where the US is in second place. From what I've seen the Japanese site Sanriotown--populated with the wildly popular Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty--is the leader, with the most full-featured, fun, and not overly commercial features that include the requisite games as well as blogging, polls, discussion groups, videos, and more.
US sites are more specialized. Imbee is an independent site with a strong content creation platform, including blogs, audio, video, photos, and trading cards. Disney's Club Penguin (purchased from the founders last year for $350 million) focuses on games and chat and touts the fact that it's ad-free...but there's a prominent shopping link. Disney also maintains the Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) site, which offers gaming and a tie-in to the theme parks. Webkinz has an unabashed tie-in to the stuffed animals sold by its parent, Ganz. They offer games and chat. Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis is connected to the parent TV network, offering lots of Nickelodeon video plus games. Mattel's Barbiegirls also has games and chat, plus a "design fashions" feature. Most of the sites with gaming also offer the opportunity to create and decorate a personal space, or "room."
Interestingly, the kids' social networking sites are adopting more gaming-derived virtual world technologies than their adult counterparts. This seems to validate the vision that some day (perhaps when these kids grow up!) many web interactions that now occur in static media such as text will migrate to a 3-D virtual reality format along the lines of the Second Life platform.
Just as with social networking for adults, the kids version is attractive for its powerful engagement and loyalty attributes, as well as highly scalable model of user-generated content.
Because of the somewhat higher barrier to entry there's currently less competition among kids social networks than in the comparable adult space. As clear winners emerge on the adult side, expect competition to pick up significantly in the kids arena. Looking at the products currently on the market, there's lots of room for innovation and better quality before this niche is mature.
Hello Kitty Online: virtual (sur)reality integrated into online social networking:
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