Disney buys Club Penguin
p2pnet news | product news:- The Walt Disney company has bought Club Penguin, a Canadian subscription site based in Kelowna, British Columbia, and aimed at children under the age of 13, from local tech entrepreneurs Lane Merrifield, Lance Priebe and Dave Krysko.
Kids’ parents pay $72 a year so their offspring can be members and the club has 12 million activated users, says the Vancouver Sun.
The Club Penguin trio will get $350 million in cash, with another $350 million coming by the end of 2009 if the site meets growth targets, says the story.
The company is going all out to the target not only children of all ages as actual and potential consumers.
When you’re dealing with “preschoolers,” there, “really isn’t a difference between education and entertainment at that age level,” said Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online spokesman Ken Goldstein recently.
The scheme is, “all part of our age-banded strategy where we are looking to follow the consumer through all their age levels and have something for them at every age,” he said.
There is, however, something to be thankful for.
“As the site’s founders, we will continue to lead and guide Club Penguin, retaining control over the day-to-day operations and direction of the site while working closely with Disney to make Club Penguin the best it can be,” say Merrifield, Priebe and Krysko.
“In addition, we remain committed to our policy of allowing no advertising on the site.”
Webkinz is another highly popular Canadian kids’ page, one of similar sites “purpose-designed to get kids who use them to blackmail their parents into buying product,” p2pnet posted, going on it’s a, “fuzzy toy site that’s sweeping the net, sucking in young surfers”.
Meanwhile, Disney was recently the centre of an unfortunate controversy when a five-year-old boy in New Jersey switched on the Disney Channel and found himself watching a porn show.
Also See:
Vancouver Sun - Disney pays $700m US for Kelowna-based Club Penguin website, August 2, 2007
through all their age levels - Disney targets toddlers, January 18, 2006
p2pnet - Curse of the Webkinz, July 13, 2007
watching a porn show - Disney Porn Time for 5-year-olds, May 4, 2007
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September 28th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
is it true and why did disney buy clubpenguin for all thet money that sux i like clubpenguin do u mean clubpenguin from miniclip
July 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
club penguin was better before disney
October 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
becoz u have made it members to only to buy stuf i cant get y do u hav to be a member to buy lots of stuff
March 31st, 2009 at 1:29 am
well first of all cp (club penguin) is very cool and i still use it despite my age (im not to old but im not that lets pretend and say 14ish 15ish!) its fun and a great way to talk to my long distance friends for free and interact!!however disney IS slowly sucking the life of cp and making them not force little kids to beg for membership throught the nose and i think thats just plain crul because before disney cp was non member frendly and they were unprejiduce to the less fortunate and now with diseny the partys are strickly for members and the non members cant get a free item at all!!!im just saying disney has turned cp into a money making monster suking kids down with it and showing them that with out money your nothing because that is the atmosphere they are showing and that is growing amongset the cp comunity!which i think is prety sick on the occasion that diseny is all about the ”MAGIC”!and yes its the cp from miniclips.i have been a active member for almost two years and the things ive seen happen to cp are making me consider remove my membership(i have it becuse yes its cool but with out it now i cant run my site and get cheats and updates on partys!) and maybe quit cp with a strong lettter of why im doing it maybe there might be time left to hel them save this empire who to some kids have become the meaning of there existance!
i apologive for my large letter for i am a strongely imaganitve mind and was bored and its a long story but im sorry hope your not late for work for this!