Club penguin will replace a new mobile app by March

Club Penguin Island, a Disney's kid-friendly social network will shut down by March, instead it will replace a new mobile-only version called Club Penguin Island. Club Penguin Island, which has been in development over few years back now introduces Club Penguin game on the desktop and mobile devices. Club Penguin Island will carry over the same philosophy to a new standalone mobile with an updated look plus new features, games and quests to engage with. The shut down may sound sad, but this generation kids who grew up with computers and the internet, will be easy to learn and socialize online through Club Penguin’s virtual world. It all began in 2005, the site featured avatars of animated penguins (hence the name), that lived in its online world. Users could play games, chat, and build their home with virtual accessories.

Club Penguin's web traffic has been on the decline since it looked around 12 million users in 2013. In last month the site was down to 5.5 million monthly visitors and the launch of Club Penguin Island hopes to recapture some of that audience while bringing the next class of elementary schoolers online. The market for kids' spaces when compared to the year 2005 and Disney will be competing directly with services like Lego's Lego Life social network, also aimed at that under-13 demographic. In short time on mobile, the iOS app will be dropped in the Games category, and consistently can rank in the 400’s or 500’s, with an occasional bounce into the 300’s, over the past couple of years.

The problem for Club Penguin, which was aimed at younger children and teens primarily, is that there are now so many apps interested to kids’. Even if their age is small in order to join sites like Facebook, Instagram and Snap chat, there are other places for kids to engage online, including YouTube, Nickelodeon’s properties, PBS Kids, and others.

The new site, Club Penguin Island, will look to capture kids’ interest, with a modern life which takes on the original virtual world when focused on mobile. Club Penguin is a significant online property, which led to the development of fan sites, wikis, and other online communities for its players over the years.

Club Penguin Island is currently offering pre-registration, so kids can reserve their new penguin’s name in advance of its March release.