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Mediabyte |
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Kids wanna have fun on the Web !
Publication: Times of India, Bangalore
Date: March 13, 2001
Would you let your weary child escape from the world of plastic toys, noisy guns and frilly dolls to create private fantasies, read epics or download some fun games?
At a time when the world revolves around the Web, hardly anyone can stay away from the mouse.
Grandfathers are sending e-mails, mothers are searching for recipes on the Net and kids...well, what does this baffling creation have to offer them? Loads of colour and unlimited opportunities, say kiddy site CEOs. For the Web is a medium that's just coming of age for kids.
Broadly speaking, it spans everything from entertainment to education. However, according to Prahlad Rao, Coolden.com CEO, people aren't really ready to embrace education-based services as yet. "Kids who come back from school have already had their fill, and therefore wanting to learn more on the Web is just not possible."
According to an informal survey done by Coolden.com, it was established that kids hate reading on the Web. "When it comes to the Web, what kids are doing right now is communicating -- they are chatting, playing games, participating in contests. And that's where I see it going," says Prahlad.
So their critical USP is a 3D walk-through experience. He explains, "The room the kid has can be personalised to his or her fantasy. They can begin by creating their own world and then move on to five other worlds we provide them with. There is also a workshed where they can work around their hobbies, like designing clothes, fitting them on mannequins and submitting them for the Miss World contest on our site. They said, give us colour and joy, and we did."
At Pitara.com, the main idea is to make the experience of education, learning and growing-up fun and, at the same time, reinforce and promote the right value-system. Their aim is to deliver an experience to children that is fun and is high on the value-quotient. The primary audience of this Gurgaon-based site is children under 13 years. The idea of Pitara was born out of the recognition that education is not an end in itself. At Pitara they believe that as children grow, they learn to become indifferent, and unconcerned from adults. Pitara hopes to provide an alternative ideology.
But how many children actually have the time or energy to spend logging on to a rather slow Internet system, where a page takes at least five minutes to download. Sangeeta Kumar, mother of a six-year-old, says her daughter is just starting to get familiar with the concept of games on the computer.
However, the long wait period puts her off. "Smriti enjoys the graphics and visuals. But she gets awfully impatient since she has to wait for too long for things to happen," she adds.
Prahlad agrees. "Things aren't fast right now and it may take another eight months to a year for it to get faster. But we have tried to bring in a trade off by telling kids that if they have the patience to download our site once, they won't have to wait that long the second time."
Does this new world of fun have a future with children? Or is it just the mommies and daddies who are checking these sites out? In February, the Pitara network had 160,000 visitors to their sites and it was found that 60 per cent of their visitors were children; the rest, adults (parents/teachers).
Chennai-based Appukids.com has a GK quiz, games and sections devoted to religion, current affairs and mythology. But it hasn't ignored the niche segment -- e-mail and e-cards.
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