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MarketingVOX: Disney has bought social network/virtual world for tweens Club Penguin.
According to Next Gen, Disney has bought up all outstanding shares of site operator New Horizons Interactive for $350 million, and plans on doubling that amount over the next couple years once Horizons hits "predefined earnings targets."
British Columbia-based Club Penguin has had explosive growth. Over the past year, site traffic has risen 329 percent, and the site is now the 131st most-visited site in the US, according to Hitwise. Overall, the site touts 12 million users, 700,000 of which pay a subscription fee for more features.
Hitwise also ranks Club Penguin as the third most popular virtual world behind Runescape and Webkinz. Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom came in eighth, while World of Warcraft ranked seventh. Second Life, meanwhile, ranked twelfth.
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