Anthony Bova Juan Pablo D’Alessandro Bryan Chu Lorens Fasano Daniel Brugal
What the Webkinz?!
☺Webkinz, the world’z most advanced plush pets, are
distributed by Ganz Inc. ☺Webkinz utilize both the appeal of a stuffed animal, with the thrill of participating in an online world. ☺Each individual Webkinz has its own code, and its own “room” in Webkinz World. ☺Webkinz now has greater online traffic than both Second Life and the World of Warcraft environments combined.
Webkinz World
☻The Webkinz World is a place where children can raise, feed, clothe and play with their pets as well as chat with their friends. ☻Kids can play games to raise Kinzcash, which they may use at their disposal to buy items. ☻There are “internal advertisements” directing kids to the different sections of the Webkinz World. ☻There is a parent’s area containing everything from a FAQ page to a store locator. Retired
Pets Pet of the Month
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Webkinz joins both a $1.3 billion (plush) and $12.5 billion industry (video game).
Finance
Webkinz’ web traffic has increased 1462% in the past year. The average Webkinz pet costs $11, and Ganz has estimated that they have sold over 2 million units to date. $ Webkinz has earned over $22 million in sales, also capitalizing on features such as retired pets, clothing and accessories.
Scale and Network Effects
₪ New members are enticed by both the excitement that awaits in the immense virtual world, and the interaction with friends (a keen display of network effects). ₪ In May 2006 the site had 334,000 unique visitors, growing to 3.71 million unique visitors in May 2007.
₪ Since Webkinz are not distributed to large companies (the largest being Hallmark Gold Crown stores), retailers are frequently seeing shortages of Webkinz products because of the incredible demand. ₪ As of right now, Ganz has distributed 46 different Webkinz petz.
Marketing and Switching Costs
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Webkinz relies on viral marketing, or spreading their product through word of mouth. Ganz does not advertise their product to the public. Current Webkinz members stay with the website because of the immense world they can interact with (which changes every time a new Webkinz is bought!) Webkinz switching costs are quite high, since the world also gets more involved with the more online friends you have, because you can have friends over to your “room” to play, as well as chat and play games against each other.
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Welcome to Webkinz