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May 25, 2006
Listening to Teens
While the whole "listening to teens" infatuation among technology VCs can get overdone -- were you really worth listening to at 14? -- it's worth paying at least a little attention. Here is Steve Jurvetson's summary of a recent such panel that considered the question "What do teens do?":Over lunch today, Guy Kawasaki arranged a panel of 14-18 year olds to address that question for an audience of investors.
All six panelists have iPods and cell phones (50% Motorola, 83% Cingular) and are active computer users (50% Mac).
None of them buys ring tones or cell phone applications. None of them plays mobile videos or listens to music from their cell phone. They primarily use their phones and computers to communicate.
With the computer, multitasking is the norm… with 13 open IM windows, music, email, browser and homework.
Gaming and TV were mildly interesting to 1 panelist.
Two panelists were MySpace users. The others expressed a certain backlash and purposeful resistance to the addiction of MySpace. One 14 year old used to be an active MySpace user but stopped after the police came to her school to warn the students about various dangers lurking there.
One of the teens made $50K last year playing online poker… and over $100K this year. He considers it his job, and the $300/hr that he makes beats any other employment available to him now. He listens to music and multitasks while “working”.
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Talk about an unrepresentative sample. I'm betting most of these kids come from affluent familes and the poker-playing kid could fund his own startup.
I agree with you Paul. I was asked to be on the Web 2.0 teen panel and while I wasn't ultimately on it there were some interesting insights, despite the massive selection bias.
I agree with Brian... hardly a statistically significant sample
One of those comments perfectly points out the problem with online poker. There are people that see it as a "job" to rob the addicted blind.
It's incredibly easy to make money playing online poker. You just play the numbers. It's also incredibly boring.
It would be interesting to know which sites were the most popular if myspace only appealed to 2 people. I also wonder how small this sample was and how representative it could be if only 1 person was mildly interested in gaming.