As some of you might know I became a father for the first time about 3½ month ago. Now I’ve played Ultima Online, Everquest 1+2 and seen MySpace.com grow. What will my son see? Will he spend his pocket money on things in a virtual world?

I think there’s a gold fever in the virtual world industry. Everybody wants to get a piece of the golden tweens (8-12 years) segment.

According to a report from eMarketer.com, 20 million American kids between 3 and 17 years will be a part of a virtual world by 2011. The big players on the market have already seen that and I guess that’s why Disney spent $350 million last August on the arctic ClubPenguin.com. For $5.95 your tween child can enjoy the life in his or her custom made igloo, if they aren’t bsy chatting with their friends on the ice.

Apparently $5.95 per month isn’t a problem for many parents. Every month the PenguinClub gets five million unique visits. Webkinz grew from less than 1 million to over 6 million last year.

Web 2.0 Money Maker

The headline from New York Times: “Pay Up, Kid, Or Your Igloo Melts” hasn’t scared Disney away from launching several virtual worlds the next year. Another example is Subeta.org where you adopt a pet and buy virtual goodies for them. For instance pay $20 for an angelic potion for your pet and it’ll grow faster. I have to agree with a lot of people on this. You pay for something that has no real value. You can’t touch a virtual toy.

The virtual worlds are growing faster than many other online sites. Mattel’s Barbie Doll has over 4 million users, StarDoll where you have your own celebrity paperdoll has over 13 million users and the very popular Finish Habbo Hotel with over 8 million unique visitors every month.

Just to give an impression of how many money there are involved in sites like Habbo, a 17-year old was arrested last year for stealing furniture worth over €4000 from a Habbo Hotel room.

At some point my son will get his own money and with his allowance he will be an independent consumer as well. Now which company or brand wouldn’t want to get a hold of him?

I guess he’ll be able to buy Big Macs from the virtual McDonalds and recieve free virtual JuicyFruit gum samples to ensure his loyalty.

Webkinz

If you are more into fuzzy pet animals than penguins then, the Canadian toy company Ganz is the expert. Their business model is a bit different than ClubPenguin.com. Each toy comes with a code that can be entered into the website to create an animated virtual version of it.

When you register your Webkinz you choose it’s name, sex and you get a bag of virtual money called “Kinzcash”. You are also supplied with a home for your pet. With the Kinzcash you can buy furniture and other goods for your home and when you get another Webkinz, it can move into that home or start a new one.

But the real genius lies in the fact that the account lapses after a year. If kids want to keep up the relationship with their virtual pets they have to buy another real toy (at around $12 each) – and there are 51 Webkinz and 29 Lil’Kinz toys to collect.

The most impressive thing is, Ganz has done this with no advertising at all. I’m no marketing expert, but combining real toys with a virtual toy is a great way to build a relationship.

Does a virtual toy have a value? Are you paying for your child’s virtual pet or similar? Would you pay for it? Is it okay to advertise in children’s virtual worlds?