Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Submitted by:
Avinash Girish (EPGP-06-010)
Dinabandhu Naskar (EPGP-06-021)
Holehonnur S K (EPGP-06-027)
Kuldeep Panwar (EPGP-06-031)
Manoj Santhakumar (EPGP-06-035)
Shreeda Kumar (EPGP-06-064)
Thejaswini (EPGCGM-13-008)

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Executive Summary
This marketing research was conducted to identify what is the market potential of a Social
Media platform for children of age 6 to 14 years. The market for the research purpose has
been segmented upon geographic basis and focusing the Indian market. There is also
demographic segmentation within the selected market based on the age (6-14 years). The
study focuses on finding the relations between the Internet usage pattern of kids and their
interests. Further, it takes into account the influence of parents/school/friends on their
Internet usage.
The target respondents were divided into two parts.

Children of age 6 to 14 years

Parents of children in the aforementioned age group

To know about the childrens usage pattern and their needs, two Focus Group Discussions
(FGD) were arranged - one for age group 6-10 and another for the age group 11-16.
To understand the parents perceptions, needs and concerns in relation with the Internet
usage patterns of their kids, an online survey was conducted.

Introduction
Social media is an online platform, which facilitates the interaction among the users where
they can create, share and exchange information and ideas. This could be either one-to-one
interaction or in virtual communities and networks. Social media is a huge business where the
power of the company is often measured in terms of number of registered users. The most
widespread revenue model these companies have adopted is online advertisements.
There are numerous social media platforms, starting from chat apps like WhatsApp to photo
sharing apps like Instagram to full-fledged social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
These social media platforms are open to users, who affirm themselves to be at least 18
years old (14 years in some cases). Clearly, though these platforms appeal to wide segments
of users, rarely are they suitable children of age 6 to 14. Despite the clear lack of fit, a large
number of children of this age group continue to use these platforms. The primary reason is
that there is no hard check for verifying the age of the users. Once the child lies about the
age, these platforms are completely open for usage.
According to social media news [1], Facebook is deleting 20000 underage accounts every day.
As Facebook does not verify the actual age, these are the accounts which are reported by
some others people (i.e. school, parents etc). So the real numbers may be higher than 20000
per day. In India, 10.6 millions of Facebook users are under the age of 17 [2]!
This study aims to find if there is any market potential for Kids Social Media. Related to
this, following additional aspects were considered:

Main features expected by kids and parents

Main concerns on usage/adoption

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Impact of promotion through schools

Secondary Research
Before setting out on the market research design directly, team decided to do some online
research about the topic. There are quite a few Kids Social Media sites out there. However,
based on the discussions with friends and family, there does not seem to be much awareness
about them. Also, most of the websites do not seem to target an emerging economy and
developing nation like India, where even the cultural backgrounds of parents and children is
quite different from that of developed western nations.

!
!

With these initial discussions and research, the team could infer that there is a scope for a
kids platform, if it can be custom-built to the Indian educational curriculum and culture. To
know more about the Indian needs and support the hypothesis about the scope after
customization as per local educational curriculum , there is a need for Qualitative as well as
Quantitative Research.
It was important to identify the lifestyle and perceptions of children in the age group of 6 to
14 about Internet and social media. Also, as the parents are the key influencers, their
perceptions, expectations and concerns had to be factored in. The secondary research helped
in finalizing a few important questions for FGD with kids as well as survey questions for
parents.

Qualitative Research
During the secondary research it has been realized that, to know about the requirements and
interesting features, FGD with the kids is essential. Moreover, for this age (6-14 years) group,
survey was difficult to conduct, as there were more chances of missing some information due

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

to communication gap. So the team conducted two FGDs, one with 6-10 years age group and
another with 11-14 years age group.
Focus Group Discussion Format
The primary goal of conducting FGD was to identify the perceptions, expectations, usage
patterns and concerns of the target users (kids of the specified age group), which could
further be used to deduce the potential feature set of the kids social media platform. We
decided to split the age groups into two depending upon the levels and types of interaction
needed for the participants. For example small children would require more assistance in
making the interactions useful, whereas older children need just a friendly environment.
Broadly, the below topics were kept in mind throughout the exercise
1. Basic demographic details
2. Interests and interaction points
3. Usage patterns like online activities, place of internet access, time spent etc
4. Perceptions of parents, as seen by the children
5. Other creative ideas that children
may have about online presence
The children were interviewed on
21/09/2014 at Bangalore. Most of them were
part of apartment communities.
Observations on Age Group of 6 to 10

Kids have some information about the

concept of social media

Most of the kids engage in at least one outdoor sports activity and one musical activity
each

Some also engage in activities related to academics, digital games

Overall, the internet usage is found to

be relatively low (Less than 1 hour/
day)

Viewing of television shows and

cartoons is more common

Influence of family appears to be high

on extra curricular activities pursued
by kids

The children in this age group seem

to have a limited/selective friends

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

group
Observations on Age Group of 10 to 14

Kids have good understanding of social media platforms

Most of the kids engage in at least one outdoor sports activity and on musical activity
each

Some also engage in activities related to academics, digital games

Children of this age group actively use Internet in their day-to-day lives. Especially,
they use email, Google Hangouts, and mobile apps

Some participants suggested that a platform, which can help them to collaborate to
solve homework and projects or identify future education path, would be helpful

Survey Research
Based on the secondary research, it was found out that parents influence the behaviors of
their young children. Hence it is important to understand the perspective of parents about
their children using various Internet services, their concerns.
Identified topics
The below topics were identified as part of the survey design.
1. Basic demographic details
a. To categorize the children based on socio-economic background of parents
b. To draw patterns based on employment status of parents
c. To help in identifying potential target groups
2. Interests and interaction points
a. To recognize patterns in the activities of children
b. To identify potential features for the new platform based upon the findings
3. Usage patterns like online activities, place of internet access, time spent etc
a. Time spent will give a picture of market potential in the target groups
b. To recognize the current activities that can be improved through the platform
4. Perceptions of the parents
a. To identify the platform readiness of the parents
b. To recognize the concerns which can be potential features in the new platform

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

5. Other creative ideas that parents may have about online presence of their children
Questions and Wordings
The questions were developed based on the topics listed above.
Topic

Questions

Implications

Basic Demographic details

Age
Gender
Both
parents
employed
Household income
Kids age

Will help to identify

patterns based on age
group, gender, income
etc

Interests and Interaction points

Kids interest areas

Will help to know if the
I n t e r a c t i o n w i t h emphasis is more on
friends
physical games or within
home activities. Helps to
understand the interest
topics and potential for
usage.
The interaction with
friends provides
information about their
social affinity

Usage patterns

Internet usage
(duration)
From where
Which sites

Allows to know the usage

level of internet and
which are the interest
areas on the online
medium

Perceptions of parents

Perception towards
Internet usage of kids
What age is suitable
for internet?
Acceptance for social
media platform
If yes, what features
are expected
What are the main
concerns

As parents are big

influencers in Kids using
the platform, it is
important to identify
these aspects in-order to
understand the potential
and designing the
content and features.

Sampling
The target respondents were parents of children of age 6 to 14. The geographies of primary
focus were tier 1 and tier 2 cities. The samples were collected mainly though convenience
sampling technique. Survey response collection was done through web link. The URL was
shared with the respondents via email.
The Questionnaire is separately attached for reference.

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Data Analysis
Analysis Outcome
PERCEPTION

OF

PARENTS ABOUT GUIDED INTERNET USAGE

From the data it is clear that 24% parents approve the Internet use amongst children for
academic purpose. About 56% parents think
that the kids should be allowed to use Internet
under their guidance. So, about 80% of parents
are comfortable with their children using
Internet, especially when they have a way to
monitor.
MARKET POTENTIAL

IN

SOCIAL MEDIA

FOR

CHILDREN

About 43% of parents say that there is

Parents are more comfortable with their children

using Internet, when they have a way to monitor
the online activities of their children.

potential for online platform of kids.

Again, 51% parents say they are open to the
idea of an online platform, provided they
There is a large portion of parents who are open
to the kids social media platform. This will have
a stronger effect provided there are adequate
controlling and monitoring features.

have the ability to monitor the childs

activities. This again reinforces the
perception that online activities of children
would be allowed if there were adequate
monitoring and controlling features for the parents. When we drill down further into the
concerns of the parents who want the monitoring abilities, we see their concerns are on the
similar pattern. See Current concerns.

FEATURE AFFINITY

Interest groups and organizing social welfare activities are more preferred features as per the
respondents, with average scores of 4.5 and 4.1. They are closely followed extra curricular
activities. It can be noted that, there is currently no platform that facilitates social welfare
activities amongst kids.

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

CURRENT CONCERNS
Organizing Interest groups and Social Welfare
activities is the most sought after features.
Currently there are not many platforms that do
these effectively.

Studying the feedbacks of parents who

have indicated a need for monitoring
capabilities, concerns related to addiction due to excessive Internet usage, health hazards
and security are coming out as major issues. All
three are averaging at scores above 4 as per
data.

Security and excessive usage are the major

concerns.

Online dating is the biggest concern of the parents having female child with an average score
of 4.8, followed by security concerns where they cannot be sure whether their child is really
interacting with kids of appropriate age
with an average score of 4.4.
PROMOTION THROUGH SCHOOL

Parents of female children are particularly

concerned about the issues of online dating. This
will need to be addressed as part of the features
of the platform.

Around 70% parents agree that school

promotion can make a difference and they
will be more comfortable in trying out a
new Internet platform. A number of comments also specify the need of parental control along

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

with this. On the other hand, around
30% of parents think that it doesnt
make any difference whether the
promotion comes through school or not.

Findings
Based upon the above analysis of survey

Promoting the platform through schools can

potentially fetch better user base.

data, below are the findings and the

implications for the new Social Media
platform.

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

Conclusion and recommendations

Based upon the findings from this research there seems to be good scope of Social Media in
metro cities in India providing below features in the same:

Authorization - This feature should take care of security concerns of parents as well
children.
Parental control Parents should be able to monitor their kids online activities and
also get content based alert messages.
Schools recommendations It is very important to have the schools recommendation to
give more confidence to the users and their parents.
School syllabus contents It should explain the important and complex topics (if not
all) in simplified manner from different School Boards and also provide the forum
where students can discuss with each other on any topic.
Useful and interesting applications
Tracking total internet usage
- It should be accessible to parents to know the
total usage and the contents if required.

Music zone
Online music classes and organize music
compitions locally.

Psychometric Test
To help users in finding out the intrests and
strenghts.

Art Zone
Online drawing classes and aganize art
compititions locally.

Sports Zone
Some learninonline games for online gaming kids
and also organize some sports compitions locally.

Alert Facility
Content based alert for parents.

Results are positive

from metro cities
for providing some
important features.
It is recommended
to take up a deeper
survey with random
sampling before
investing in this
project.

Market Potential of Social Media for Kids

The result looks very positive. But, considering that the research has been conducted using
convenience sampling due to lack of time and funds, it is advisable that before concluding
and investing in this project one should conduct a random sampling based survey.

Limitations
FGD and survey were conducted using convenience sampling. Because of this, there are some
limitations to this research,
1. Survey covers only people living in metro cities; so it do not cover the viewpoint of
people living in tier 2 cities, other small cities/towns and rural areas.
2. Kids who participated in FGD are from a single society and exhibit similar behaviors.
3. Cultural diversity is not covered.
4. Average family income of the parents participated in the survey is much better than
the average income of the country.

References
1. http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/facebook-deletes-20000-underage-accountsevery-day/
2. http://www.dazeinfo.com/2014/01/07/facebook-inc-fb-india-demographicusers-2014/