Web Masters

Lane Merrifield, founder of virtual world Club Penguin, tells the story of building the world's largest social network for children.

Show Notes

Club Penguin was a virtual world that its founder, Lane Merrifield, also describes as a social network. However, depending on your age, you might have never heard of it. That's because Club Penguin was for children. And it was enormously popular, having over 200 million registered users around the world at its peak.

So why did Lane and his team build Club Penguin? And what distinguishes a social network for children from other social networking websites? That's what we explore on this episode of Web Masters. Lane shares the story of building Club Penguin, starting with where the idea came from, through the company's eventual purchase by Disney for $350 million, and the experience of running the virtual world after the Disney acquisition.

For a complete transcript of the episode, click here.

What is Web Masters?

Web Masters is an original podcast that explores the history of the Internet through the stories of some of its most important innovators. In each episode, host Aaron Dinin, a serial entrepreneur and digital media scholar, talks with Internet entrepreneurs who created important websites, tools, services, and features. Some are hugely popular, some you’ve never heard of, and all of them have impacted everything you do online. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how the Internet has enabled -- and continues to create -- some of the greatest business opportunities in history from the people who have proven they know how to build successful Internet businesses.