“In the real world girls always love to play with dolls and dress them up and have play sets. Toy brands like Barbie and Bratz have launched their own virtual worlds, too, as have companies like Webkinz. Disney bought kids’ virtual world Club Penguin last year for a reported $350 million.
There’s no shortage of media names vying for an audience of girls aged 6-12. John Park, president and CEO of IAC’s consumer applications and portals division, said the company decided to launch the younger brand after it began turning away thousands of users who attempted to register for Zwinky, but didn’t meet the site’s age requirement of at least 13 years old.
They then congregate in virtual public spaces where they can socialize, shop, and play casual games. Visitors to virtual “hangouts” like Zwinky Cuties interact using video game-like representations of themselves, called avatars, that they create and customize. The portal is a spinoff of, a two-year-old site aimed at teenagers that claims more than 16 million registered users globally and six million unique visitors per month. IAC is no stranger to the virtual-world business. 16 will launch its own virtual world aimed at tweens called Zwink圜. In one of its first moves since IAC’s split into five different companies earlier this month, flagship IAC on Sept.
IAC boss Barry Diller plans to go head-to-head with Disney’s Club Penguin in the kids virtual world business.