“There is a massive opportunity here,” said Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group, in an interview last week.

New York Times writes on the growing number of “e-worlds” aimed specifically at young consumers, citing market leaders Club Penguin Webkinz Pirates of the Caribbean Pixie Hollow and MTV’s NeoPetsToon Town.

The article in particular focuses on how media conglomerates are finding these virtual worlds to be key relationship builders between them and young consumers. Emarketer suggests 8.2 million youth currently subscribe to virtual worlds, with the number rising to 20 million by 2011.

One example that has generated plenty of its own publicity is  Disney’s Club Penguin :

…where members pay $5.95 a month to dress and groom penguin characters and play games with them, attracts seven times more traffic than Second Life. In one sign of the times, Electric Sheep, a software developer that helps companies market their brands in virtual worlds like Second Life and There.com, last week laid off 22 people, about a third of its staff.

By contrast, Disney last month introduced a “Pirates of the Caribbean” world aimed at children 10 and older, and it has worlds on the way for “Cars” and Tinker Bell, among others. Nickelodeon, already home to Neopets, is spending $100 million to develop a string of worlds. Coming soon from Warner Brothers Entertainment, part of Time Warner: a cluster of worlds based on its Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and D. C. comics properties.