Posted on: July 11, 2006 in Miscellany
Webkinz - Second Life for kids
I recently heard about a new children’s toy known as ‘Webkinz’. This has to be one of the best (and most lucrative) ideas I’ve seen in a long time.
The basic gist is that kids (or rather their parents) purchase a standard plush toy animal. Then kids, using a secret code that comes with their toy doll, ‘adopt’ the cuddly critter online at the webkinz website. Once the toy has been ‘adopted’, kids can create virtual rooms on the webkinz website, find friends online, interact with each other, chat, and go hang out in other kids virtual rooms. It’s like Second Life for kids.
So here’s the clever parts:
Kids can purchase additional virtual accouterments for their rooms and by using ‘kinzcash’. Everything is available for sale, from wallpaper to virtual food for your pet. From reading the website, it seems as if ‘kinzcash’ can be earned by taking quizzes and playing games, but I’m wondering if you can buy ‘kinzcash’ with real dollars. If not, you should be able to! This is like all those Barbie accessories of days gone by, minus the manufacturing and shipping costs to the toy maker. Pure profit.
The price point for webkinz is perfectly set at around $10 - 15 – just right for a birthday gift. The toy makers know that the real money is made from having a huge online community of kids. Rather then paying $15 for a toy that has some neat software attached to it, this is more like buying a yearly subscription to a social networking service, and receiving a gift of a free doll. And once a kid starts using this service, you can bet they will scream bloody murder if their yearly subscription isn’t paid up and renewed.
Word on the street is that these toys are flying off the shelves, and like any other truly popular technology, the value of the toy increases as more kids sign on to the website. This encourages other kids to actively market the product to each other. It’s a viral plush toy combined with social software! Yipes!
Update: I just found out that the average number dolls that a webkinz owner has is 1.6! Impressive, from a marketing standpoint…
5221 Responses to “Webkinz - Second Life for kids”
Pages: [262] 261 260 259 258 257 256 255 254 253 252 … 1 »
Pages: [262] 261 260 259 258 257 256 255 254 253 252 … 1 »
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
hey yall visitmy piczo
www.somuch4sanity.piczo.com
March 16th, 2008 at 6:01 am
yo it me bailey wat s up yall
March 8th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I haven’t been here in a long time…
This is Matul, if no one doesn’t remember.
A lot of memories are still in here. Wow.
This is how I discovered freewebs and Maddie, and Truly (don’t like her anymore), and Kaitlin. Probably some more people, but wow!
It’s just amazing.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
hey cloe 785 look for me raja95
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
hey … omg!!! it’s been sooooooo long! Haha kaitlin :) and bailey still comes on here :O omg!! haha i miss pinkie and rosie thuogh …. oh my .. uhh i probably wont be on here again anytime soon … was just checking up on things … so yeah haha aaaaaaanywayssss .. i miss the old dayss when everyone was on here haha .. yeah byebye people!! blue88_88_88@hotmail.com ( althuogh i dont really check this e-mail much i will try and remember to if someone e-mails me or whatever..! )
February 21st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
*waves 2 every1*
February 17th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
hay yall I’m cloe785[username] I want to be anybodys friend I have42 webkinz like the cheeky dog the duck the love frog the kangaroo
and the racoon and lots more!!!!!!!!!
so please if you want add cloe785
February 16th, 2008 at 8:06 am
dear webkinz fans i know how much we love you but theres something that needs to happen. webkinz… well i love you but i need you to make more because i have all 368 of them so you better make some more!
February 10th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
hey i do not now if you love school but love it because i am home schooled
February 10th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
ok no one talks to me i feel like i am talking to a door.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
hey bailey EMAIL ME PLZ
February 6th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
i just got my 11th webkinz
February 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
yo how are you guys doing
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:51 am
hey i’ll be back after church
January 26th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
hey list your pets names ok
January 26th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
no thaks
January 26th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
hey i just got a new webkinz. gray horse i love him so much.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
hey yall plz email me
aquabubblegum13@yahoo.com
kait_is_krazy@hotmail.com
kaitkrazy@aim.com
& a gmail
k email me :)
♥143♥
~♥Kaitlin aka Kait♥~
January 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
hey i finally finsihed this yay i read the whole thing and got usernames now im going to list my pets k
January 16th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
hi im home from skool gonna finsih readign this then go to church bye! ♀♀