Virtual tamagochchi bind kids to online
From the point of view of the marketer, tens of millions of children who use the Internet are a great target audience. This is an advertising market with a turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore, all new children's sites appear on the Internet, where babies are loaded with advertisements to the fullest extent. There have already appeared their leaders. One of the largest children's sites on the Internet is the role-playing game Neopets.com .
About 25 million young users communicate here with their virtual pets. Ten versions of the site in different languages in total generate more than 2.2 million page impressions per month. The popularity of the site has reached such heights that Warner Bros. already removes a cartoon with characters from this virtual world, writes Wired .
It all starts with the fact that the child gets one or another animal (for example, a dragon, a bird or a pig), chooses a color and a floor for it. After this, the animal requires continuous care and feeding. He gradually grows up. For several months, the child becomes so attached to his pet that he checks his condition several times a day and gets involved in the game.
According to statistics, the average user spends on the site for 6 hours and 15 minutes per month, that is, 12.5 minutes per day. This is a very high figure. For comparison, Neopets.com overtakes Yahoo , MSN , eBay , and many other major portals. About 40% of Neopets.com's audience is kids under the age of 13, and about the same number are between the ages of 13 and 18. Naturally, a huge children's audience attracts the attention of advertisers, including manufacturers of toys, sweets and drinks.
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In the virtual world of Neopets.com, you need to earn game currency (NeoPoints points) in order to buy your pet, for example, a new home. These points are awarded for solving educational puzzles, crossword puzzles, as well as for viewing advertising and participating in sociological polls ( screenshot ). Many of the gaming areas on the site are at the mercy of sponsors. The developers have tried to saturate the game space with advertising to the maximum, so that advertising is perceived as an organic part of the virtual world using product placement. They did it very well.
Experts still have not come to a common opinion about the ethical display of advertising for young children, but the commercial appeal of the children's web portal has already become so obvious that in June 2006 the site was sold to a large media corporation Viacom (owner of MTV, Nickelodeon) for $ 160 million .
About 25 million young users communicate here with their virtual pets. Ten versions of the site in different languages in total generate more than 2.2 million page impressions per month. The popularity of the site has reached such heights that Warner Bros. already removes a cartoon with characters from this virtual world, writes Wired .
It all starts with the fact that the child gets one or another animal (for example, a dragon, a bird or a pig), chooses a color and a floor for it. After this, the animal requires continuous care and feeding. He gradually grows up. For several months, the child becomes so attached to his pet that he checks his condition several times a day and gets involved in the game.
According to statistics, the average user spends on the site for 6 hours and 15 minutes per month, that is, 12.5 minutes per day. This is a very high figure. For comparison, Neopets.com overtakes Yahoo , MSN , eBay , and many other major portals. About 40% of Neopets.com's audience is kids under the age of 13, and about the same number are between the ages of 13 and 18. Naturally, a huge children's audience attracts the attention of advertisers, including manufacturers of toys, sweets and drinks.
')
In the virtual world of Neopets.com, you need to earn game currency (NeoPoints points) in order to buy your pet, for example, a new home. These points are awarded for solving educational puzzles, crossword puzzles, as well as for viewing advertising and participating in sociological polls ( screenshot ). Many of the gaming areas on the site are at the mercy of sponsors. The developers have tried to saturate the game space with advertising to the maximum, so that advertising is perceived as an organic part of the virtual world using product placement. They did it very well.
Experts still have not come to a common opinion about the ethical display of advertising for young children, but the commercial appeal of the children's web portal has already become so obvious that in June 2006 the site was sold to a large media corporation Viacom (owner of MTV, Nickelodeon) for $ 160 million .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4414/
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