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Cancer Research UK turns to the cloud to raise funds

Cloud computing has landed in the “third sector” - charities. New Media Knowledge took a close look at how Cancer Research UK is using “software as a service” to raise both awareness and funds, plus spread its message further via social media. By Chris Lee.

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Apple ousts LG as third largest mobile phone vendor by volume following 4Q11 results

Comment from Malik Saadi, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media on mobile phone vendors' 4Q11 results.

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Channel 4 Education launches SuperMes

Channel 4 Education has just launched SuperMes, an online drama played out by virtual actors – a tale of four extraordinary folks and their triumphs and tragedies, as they learn how to be stronger and more resilient people. SuperMes has been created by content design company Somethin’ Else in collaboration with US-based games publisher Electronic Arts and uses The Sims™ 3as its platform – a virtual studio and soundstage. By Victoria Hartley.

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Our Friends Electric

By: NMK Created on: October 11th, 2007
Bookmark this article with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon

According to new research compiled by eMarketer, virtual worlds are becoming more and more popular with young people.

According to the company, nearly a quarter (24%) of the 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007. This is forecast to rise to 53% by 2011. The phenomenon is not just limited to the States, though, with Korea’s Cyworld well ahead of most other worlds, according to the ComScore data cited in the report:


vrstats

While the sector in general is showing growth well ahead of the norm, intense competition for teens’ attention and the faddish nature of children themselves means that it’s more difficult than one might imagine to spot the best places to invest in advertising or online content. Many of the top-scoring worlds have been around for less than twelve months. Similarly, some of the bigger names in this sector, Disney’s Toontown Online and WeeWorld, would appear to be in decline according to these figures.

A further complication highlighted by the report is that the correlation between teens interacting with a brand online and in real life has not yet been established. Report author Debra Aho Williamson observes, “The bad news is that it is difficult to know what all this virtual interaction really means. What value is there in a person’s avatar drinking a Pepsi? Or wearing a shirt bought from a virtual store? What if a person’s virtual activities have no bearing on their real-world activities?”

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