Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Disney to Launch Social Network: Is It Destined to Fail?
Disney is following Wal-Mart's footsteps into the social networking world, by launching a sanitized version of MySpace on its outdated Disney.com property. Due to launch next week, the new Disney.com will feature the traditional features of a social network: profiles, videos, and chat plus a side of parental controls.
Now, a big part of MySpace's success has been attributed to its lack of constraints on users' actions: like a teenager's bedroom, you can keep it as clean as you want, or make a complete mess. It's up to you. In another possible misstep, Disney is also planning to sell subscriptions to the site.
All of this has me thinking of Wal-Mart's disastrous The Hub, which let users upload pictures and videos and create Wal-Mart-based fashions. The attempt, widely seen as a prelude to a more permanent presence in the social networking space, failed as a result of strict censorship of user profiles and was shut down after 10 weeks of tepid growth.
Of course, Disney may primarily target its site to its core audience, pre-teens and tweens, so censorship might not be an issue. But will they still offer 0% APR ads on the site like they do now (see screenshot below), or can parents censor those too?
Tags:
Now, a big part of MySpace's success has been attributed to its lack of constraints on users' actions: like a teenager's bedroom, you can keep it as clean as you want, or make a complete mess. It's up to you. In another possible misstep, Disney is also planning to sell subscriptions to the site.
All of this has me thinking of Wal-Mart's disastrous The Hub, which let users upload pictures and videos and create Wal-Mart-based fashions. The attempt, widely seen as a prelude to a more permanent presence in the social networking space, failed as a result of strict censorship of user profiles and was shut down after 10 weeks of tepid growth.
Of course, Disney may primarily target its site to its core audience, pre-teens and tweens, so censorship might not be an issue. But will they still offer 0% APR ads on the site like they do now (see screenshot below), or can parents censor those too?
Tags: Labels: Technology
