• The New York Times, Monday, December 31, 2007 11:02 AM

"Get ready for a total inundation" of kiddie-oriented virtual worlds, says eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Webkinz, Club Penguin and the like have been a smashing success where adult-oriented counterparts Second Life and There.com have not. According to comScore, Disney-owned Club Penguin attracts seven times the traffic of Second Life. Webkinz, a site where children create and care for virtual stuffed animals, has seen its traffic soar 342 percent in the last year.

In all, eMarketer estimates that 20 million children will be part of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today. Disney, for example, plans to follow Club Penguin's success with virtual worlds for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Cars."

Viacom's Nickelodeon, home of Neopets, is putting $100 million behind a similar expansion. Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment division is also planning a cluster of virtual worlds based on brands like Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and D.C. Comics. As Disney Internet Group President Steve Wadsworth put it last week, "There is a massive opportunity here."

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