Written by Sramana Mitra. Note: this
is an excerpt from a report
written by Sramana Mitra, an entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon
Valley.
Worried your kid is spending too much time in front of the computer? Blame it on
websites like CartoonNetwork.com, Disney.go.com, ArchieComics.com and NickJr.com, which are attracting kids with a host of
interactive games and shows. The percentage of children having access to Internet
increased to a phenomenal 93% in 2006 in contrast to 56% in late
2003.
With the websites becoming more user-friendly and interactive, Internet is grabbing
pre-teen eyeballs at a rapid pace, placing television and radio in the back burner. 67%
of teens are avid users of the Internet. The graph below gives details of Internet usage
of tweens. Tweens and young teens aged between 8 and 14 on an average spend 1.5 to 2
hours daily surfing the Internet and make up 60% of the Internet users, aged less than
18.
The graph below shows the expected growth in Internet usage among the
pre-teens.
Popular Pre-teen Sites and Trends
Internet usage pattern of pre-teens is different and it changes dramatically as they
grow up. Kids are attracted to websites dealing with race cars, music, education, comedy,
sports, news and movie stars and sites like MTV.com, Nascar.com, Hollywood.com,
Comedycentral.com and Sportsline.com are popular among them. Apart from the
children’s websites, the pre-teens are also influenced by the surfing of their
parents and elders.
Research shows that after school hours, around 3 pm – 4 pm in the evening,
89% of the children are drowned in their computers. The pre-teens are
mainly attracted to websites like NeoPets.com, ArchieComics.com, NickJr.com and CartoonNetwork.com where they can watch and
interact with cartoon characters, play computer games, vehicle racing, board games,
puzzles, play sets, action figures, participate in online quizzes, drawing and win prizes
and watch television episodes that are missed out during school hours.
Below is a list of the popular websites among the pre-teens and their Alexa
rankings:
According to a research conducted by Media Metrix, “kids prefer websites which
are popular amongst older users like Yahoo.com, AOL.com, Wikipedia.com, Geocities.com and
Google.com. They visit a wide range of websites, from education to entertainment to news,
which clearly shows that there is an opportunity for those trying to reach out to the
young audience.”
Popular sites visited by the kids include music sites [55%], e-card
sites [25%], animal sites [35%], sites on books
[20%], sites on TV channels/films and cartoons [25%],
sites on mobile phones [19%].
Below is a list of the online activities of the pre-teens by eMarketer.
The full report
on Pre-Teens is on Sramana Mitra’s website. Sramana Mitra is an Entrepreneur, Founder
CEO of 3 companies, Strategy Consultant to 50+ companies, and Author of a popular
technology business blog, Sramana Mitra on
Strategy.
