Kwedit "allows you to make payments at a local store such as a 7-Eleven, by mailing cash, or by asking a friend or relative to pay on your behalf using a convenient service called Pass the Duck...[It is] an amazing new way to get goods now in exchange for Promises to pay for them later."
The best part of all: The company bypasses one of the most insidious forces conspiring against capitalizing on youth: Parents. Corporate America, unite!
Reminds me of the strategy of every local drug dealer: "The first hit is on us."
The New York Times has a fascinating article on the fledging company that targets little fledglings, "Buy Now, Pay Later (Maybe With Your Allowance)." Article reads like a far-fetched piece from The Onion circa 2000. This time, it's for real.
Now an eighth grader, on her own, can use a Kwedit Promise to buy a virtual 40-pound bag of Purina Puppy Chow. The chow exists only as a photograph of a Purina package, but FooPets instructs its users that the care and feeding of the digital pets they’ve adopted should be regarded as a serious matter. “Your FooPet is a real creature that lives online,” the company’s Web site says. It’s ontological nonsense, but the money that is paid for the pixels is certainly real. (The big bag of virtual puppy chow costs $3. For parents with deep pockets, a “rustic bungalow” is $333.) Systems like these — known in the industry as nurturing games — are built to require regular investments of time and, for fullest enjoyment, money.It's probably all harmless fun...until the Kwedit Kollectors start calling.
--Marc Isenberg
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