Mark Charkin - Bebo.com
Mark is talking about Bebo.com.
He's talking about digital natives being his market, those who have grown up and been born with the internet, those who hang out online, using online as an extension of what goes on in their line. It's an elusive market to engage with and that is where Bebo enters to make its money.
It's the largest social networking website in the UK (Netwise). The core demographic is between 13-30 (although I've had younger students tell me of their time on Bebo).
The top thing Bebo offers to its users is...
CREATIVITY.
It offers small things like being able to create a background for their emails or pages, and big things like sharing music for free direct from the artists' own Bebo pages.
They are taking great care to have fun and not overcorporatise them. They respect their users and the way that they are - should education not take the same attitude, I wonder?
Bebo are looking into making deals with other carriers - mobile ones - to make the Bebo trail stretch further. It's time for education, I think, to get in their first. Come on! It can be done.
Bebo prides itself on the stickiness of the site, averaging 145 minutes per visitor per month. Taking that as an average it means some kids must be spending more than 145 minutes. As Bebo goes mobile soon maybe using AdMob type technology we could see an educational 'invitation' appearing next to User Generated Content.
LUKE_GRAHAMER
Posted by: luke graham | December 22, 2006 at 08:47 PM