I wanted to write something like this for a while, to look at a launch and dissect it and do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).

Recently I saw a launch of a new service, a social network designed for kids. It was shared by the developer in one Facebook group which I’m a part of announcing the launch. The website is called YaluKids.com (Yalu means friends, and kids means well kids) so YaluKids means kid friends.

The first impression

When I landed on the homepage, I was bit confused. I didn’t grab the what is the product and what is the target audience. The founders, or users should be able to describe a product in one or two sentences. No more.

This can also be the tagline of your product.

However, I wan’t able to describe the product in one sentence. Is it a social network? A learning platform? What is the intended audience?

Dangers outside have made it risky to play and build friendships outside like kids were used to.If technology can bring Learn from Home to them, technology also can bring Friendships from Home to them!

YaluKids

The above tagline does not tell the users what the service YaluKids provides at the first glance.

I was unable to gather these information from the homepage, yes, I know it was for kids, but unlike adults kids in different ages have different abilities, and if you are building a product for the kids then it should be targeted for a particular age group. You can’t build a single product targeting pre-school children to teenagers.

I tried scrolling through the page and I was able to grab the idea, that yalukids is meant to be a social network for kids.

The tag line should be something like “A safer way to make new friendships for your kids”.

Strengths

• One of the obvious strengths is that there is only a small number of social networks targeting kids. And unlike Facebook, there is no real leader in social networks for children under 12 years. So there is potential.
• They have circumvented the legality and ethical issues by allowing only parents to create an account (something like an administrator account) and allowing the parents to create profile for their children, and ability to oversee everything their children are doing.
• In a time like this where people are told to isolate, this can be a way to build new friends without having to put your life in danger.
• Children can share knowledge, experiences, and build long distance relationships to share cultures. It can be used for good.
• Simple design, the founders have created an MVP and launched it to get feedback which is good.

Weaknesses

• There is a high barrier of entry, children can’t get in unless their parents allow them. This means that makers and children both have to convince the parents.
• Even if the parents allow the children to enter, still the children would like to use a social network as well.
• Building a social graph is not easy, and like every network/marketplace there is the chicken and egg problem.
• Even though I have not received an invitation to signup for the service (it is currently invitation only), for a child to be able to use a social network it has to be extraordinary user-friendly. Because children won’t be able to use a service/website as well as an adult, at least until you become a teenager.

Opportunities

• The idea can be expanded, if the founders were able to implement it correctly. Potential areas of expansions are, a learning platform, a social network for high-school students, university students etc.
• There is obvious opportunity to improve the homepage and give an idea about what the service gives for the users at a glance.

Threats

• There are regulatory and legal implications when kids are involved in a service. Regulators are tough when kids are involved.
• Even though you need a parent’s approval to use the service, still how can the founders prevent an adult using the service impersonating as a kid?

Some questions answered by founders

• What is it? A social network by function. It can practically be a “learning together” platform as well (Its truly what people would make it out to be.). However, it is not intended to deliver lessons or anything like that.
• Target audience? Pre-preschool, preschool, and early primary grades. (children form age 3-10)

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I’ve invited the founder to have a discussion of Discord, I’m waiting till he accepts my invitation to learn more about the service and how he plans to market the service, and gather audience.

Also this my first launch review, would you like to read more launch reviews like this? I’d love to know.