Web 3.0 & Walt Disney (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy

Walt Disney operates various Internet properties that cater to a large cross-section of the society. It’s popular sites are Disney.com, FamilyFun.com, Movies.com, ESPN, etc. We will take a look at the Company’s various online verticals below.

Disney operates a host of sites in the entertainment space that caters to both the young and the old. We will discuss the verticals of Disney under two broad categories – kids and family.

Kids
Disney.com is the number one kids’ entertainment site. The site is popular for online games, activities and information on various television shows. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, the site attracted 23.03 million unique visitors, an increase of 12% in August ’07 compare to the previous month.

Club Penguin is a kid-friendly virtual world where children can play games, have fun and interact with each other. The site has 700,000 current paid subscribers and more than 12 million active users.

Wondertime.com is a children’s site with a difference. It allows parents to revel in the joys of their child’s development with parenting articles, preschool learning activities, unique toddler crafts & printables, and games. It is also a popular gaming site.

Family

FamilyFun.com provides information on arts and crafts, recipes, and parties for holidays, games, travel, plus hundreds of ideas for kid crafts, birthday cakes, travel, etc. Disney Family helps parents raise their families in the best environment possible. The site covers important categories like food, parenting, entertainment, education, travel, shopping, etc. Parents can do research, interact with other parents and share their experiences and views.

Entertainment
ABC.com allows users to watch full Television serials online, and provides schedules of upcoming television programs that are part of the ABC Network. Abcfamily.com allows users to catch up on the latest television shows and movies. It is the official site of ABC family channel and includes episode guides, videos, blog and insider cast info. The Company also operates Soapnet.com a site that provides consumers with information, updates, news, cast info, etc. on their favorite soaps.

Sports
ESPN.com is one of the top sports site in the world. It provides the latest news, information, scores, etc. from the world of sports. In August 2007, the site attracted 7.185 million unique users, a 15% increase compared to the previous year.

Movies
Launched in March 2000, Movies.com provides a broad array of news, original content and services, including show times and ticket sales. Operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group, its content encompasses films from throughout the US film industry and follows films from production through video/DVD release.

News
Abcnews.com is an online news site, which offers the latest national and international news. The site is well organized, easy to navigate and includes news under different categories such as world news, politics, etc. Go.com offers news about the world and sports, and also provides weather, shopping, games, and other information from a variety of sources.

Shopping
Disneyshopping.com is an online shopping site that has all types of products for kids as well as grown ups.

Gaps in the Walt Disney Portfolio
The Walt Disney Company has broad presence in the entertainment and sports verticals. Thus future acquisitions will most likely be with the intent of deepening the children’s and family entertainment and sports verticals, and Disney is quite likely to compete with Viacom, especially in the kids space. Towards that end, online community sites and virtual worlds targeted towards kids and teens are likely to be the segment that Disney will look to fill out further.

(To Be Continued)

[Part 1]

This segment is part 2 in the series : Web 3.0 & Walt Disney
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