Disney is launching a localised version of its Club Penguin virtual world in Australia, on the back of strong growth for its wider Disney web portal, which has seen visitor numbers double to 800,000 since the end of last year. Club Penguin isn't part of that site yet, but Disney plans to hire a team by August to manage the localised virtual world in Sydney, according to the company's Duncan Orrell-Jones.
“One of the reasons why we’re very excited about the opportunity here is that there is already a pretty sizeable audience of people from Australia going to Club Penguin… If you look around the world, Australia ranks way up there in terms of our brand appeal - it’s sort of neck and neck with the US.”
He also says Disney is planning to launch its other upcoming virtual worlds in Australia, including Disney Fairies and the world based on Cars. It seems games and virtual worlds are both proving popular with Australian internet users, and specifically with Disney’s young fanbase. It’s also a sign of how Disney plans to invest in global expansion for Club Penguin, ramping up its focus in key markets.
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