So, I’m sure we’ve all heard of TeensInTech by now. Led by Daniel Brusilovsky, a group of both teenagers and adults are off to try to conquer the Teenage Market. According to their site, a new product will be announced on July 31sts at 9am. As a tribute to them, let’s all remember the wonderful things they’ve had planned for the past year or so.
A Blogging Network
Teens In Tech was first founded as a blogging network. Using WordPress MU, they wanted to create a community for young teens in the tech industry to blog under, similar to the WordPress.com brand. According to Techcrunch, this happened around August of 2008, and, might I add, never caught on.
A Conference
After failing to attract the teen market through the blogosphere, Teens In Tech tried once again in January of 2009 by starting the Teens in Tech Conference. Sponsored by Google and other companies, it supposedly was a huge success. When speaking to a member of Teens In Tech, they said that they believed their conference was such a big success that it was now their main product, and that they were planning on taking the conference audience and expanding that presence into an online community.
A Network
Having at least one victory under their belt, Teens in Tech decided to acquire Youth Bloggers Network. While it was only a very nicely done BuddyPress installation, Youthbloggers.net had 100 members when the deal occurred, and now has 1,000 registered users. However, there has been very little activity on the site for the past month, and it looks like posting has been scattered for the past few months. 2 Strikes, 1 Hit.
So Whats Next?
So, with a successful conference, and two failed communities, Teens In Tech is going for another round at the youth market. What can we expect from them? Well, my guess is not anything interesting. They’ve tried the community gig twice, and both times can’t seem to garner a sustainable audience. And even if they do get an audience, chances are they will have a very hard time monetizing it. Young people tend to be unendingly cheap, mainly because a large majority aren’t controlling their own purse strings.
Maybe they’ll surprise us, but don’t count on it.