Firms target young Internet users<\/p>\n
By Yenni Kwok<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): He is purple, wears a bandana and a pair of
\nfunky sunglasses. If you are thinking of Barney, the purple
\ndinosaur, you are wrong. Meet Diffy the Spider, an inhabitant of
\nthe World Wide Web.<\/p>\n
The site is Diffy's World, http:\/\/www.diffy.com. Unlike its
\nelder sister D-net, Diffy's World has a younger target market:
\nthose aged from 13 to 25 years old. Its web site consists of
\ndifferent pages, such as Diffy Study, Diffy Chatting, Diffy
\nFashion and Diffy Entertainment.<\/p>\n
The language is upbeat, heavy in Indonesian slang words. The
\ndesign is dynamic and full of bright colors. And the topics have
\na similar flavor as well. For instance, before Valentine's Day,
\nthe Diffy Sharing corner, called "Curhat" from curahan hati
\n(emotional outflow) was filled with members' sending their
\nromantic experiences.<\/p>\n
The choice of a spider icon is not only because it is a
\ncreature who lives in a web. "Diffy has four hands, which
\nsymbolizes youths' multiple interests and activities," said Ferly
\nJunandar, Diffy's World project manager.<\/p>\n
So far, Diffy is doing well. Since its launch at the end of
\nJanuary, its web site has been accessed 5,500 times. Diffy also
\nprovides e-mail addresses. Ferly said there has been a growing
\ninterest for people to move from D-net to Diffy because its
\ndomain name, diffy.com, is shorter and easier to remember.<\/p>\n
But Diffy is not alone in trying to lure young people from the
\nmiddle- and upper-class. Pacific Internet, a Singapore-based
\nfranchise, who just entered the already-saturated Indonesian
\nInternet market last January, also targets young people with its
\nPlanet Remaja (Teenager's Planet) web site
\n(http:\/\/www.pacific.net.id\/content\/remaja).<\/p>\n
Oneline<\/p>\n
Jacobus Djohan, a high school chemistry teacher, has also
\ntargeted the younger audience. Jacobus set up a High School
\nChemistry Homepage (http:\/\/www.cbn.net.id\/~johanoni). The page
\nhas a number of chemistry test questions.<\/p>\n
So far the result has been disappointing, he said. He has
\nencouraged his students to look at the page, but only a few of
\nthem have access to the Internet. Some students from other
\nschools have responded to his site, but they are a small handful,
\nJacobus said.<\/p>\n
So what's the difference between Diffy's World and the
\nChemistry Homepage?<\/p>\n
Diffy's World is entertainment-oriented, while the Chemistry
\nHomepage is very academic and boring for most people.<\/p>\n
Most of the younger generation access the Internet for
\nentertainment purposes.<\/p>\n
Yoga Adhistira, a communication major at the University of
\nIndonesia, is an example. He frequently uses the Net for
\ninformation about films and music or for news from Tempo Online
\nor Kompas Online.<\/p>\n
However, he never tries to find academic material from the
\nNet. "If I want to make a thesis paper, I won't do research on
\nthe Net," Yoga said. "I cannot determine whether it is reliable
\nor not."<\/p>\n
And what about pornography? After all, it's the most
\nconcerning material available on the Net for the younger
\ngeneration.<\/p>\n
Yoga admits he was tempted by such pictures when he first
\nstarted to use the Net. But he later quit. "It took a long time
\nto download the pictures. Sometimes I even had to pay (to access
\na site). Anyway, there are still other sites."<\/p>\n
Ferly said the interesting design of Diffy's World tries to
\ndivert young people's interest from pornographic sites.<\/p>\n
"We try to show that for young people, the Internet is not
\nonly about dirty stuff," said Dodong Cahyono, Diffy's World
\nmarketing supervisor.<\/p>\n
People and the media sometimes only underscore one aspect of
\nthe Internet, namely entertainment, said Ruli Manurung, who
\nrecently graduated with a degree in computer technology.<\/p>\n
For example, a teenager's magazine only points out that people
\ncan look at NBA scores or celebrity gossip from the Web. Some
\nyoung Internet users may spend hours playing online games.<\/p>\n
"They only consume the Net. We need to be both a creator and a
\nconsumer," Ruli said.<\/p>\n
He himself has set an example. While he was still attending
\nthe University of Indonesia, he and another friend built a local
\narea network of seven computers at his boarding house in Depok.
\nThe network, called the Ethernet, has some Internet-like
\nfeatures, such as e-mail, multiple-player games, and even a web
\nserver.<\/p>\n
Sure, Ruli can do it thanks to his major. However, he points
\nout that one does not need to be a computer whiz to be a
\n"creator" on the Net.<\/p>\n
Even a non-computer expert can build a web site only with some
\nbasic knowledge on how to program the Hypertext Markup Language
\n(HTML). "We can develop our creativity on the Net," he said.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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