Kids Corp, the Argentine kidtech consolidating its position in Latin America

In a one-on-one interview with Forbes Argentina, Demian Falestchi, CEO of the company, talks about the expansion of the company in the region, the obstacles that companies have to impact a youth target and how KidsCorp helps to overcome them with innovation, technology and knowledge.

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Back in 2015, KidsCorp was already innovating in the market by becoming the first digital tool designed to reach U18 audiences, also known as "digital natives". They made a first experiment of the project in Uruguay and then returned to Buenos Aires convinced that it was time to implement their idea. Today it is consolidated as the leading kidtech company in Latin America, with offices in Mexico City, São Paulo, Bogota, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires.

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The company managed to double its growth from 2020 to 2021. For this 2022, they also project a 100% growth compared to 2021, thanks to the consolidation of a team of more than 60 professionals distributed throughout Latin America.

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"For 2023 we project an even more aggressive growth, considering our entry into the US market through an important capital investment", remarks Demian Falestchi, CEO of Kids Corp.

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When the company began to take its first steps, the market need was evident: to advertise on the Internet there were only generic platforms such as Google, and the tools for targeting applied to users over 18 years old. How to reach younger audiences? Incredibly, there was no other company trying to solve this question.

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Digital advertising became a great way for brands to reach their audiences. But when it comes to the youth segment, there are many aspects to take into account, as there is a risk of violating certain policies and safety regulations. What aspects should be taken into account that brands are generally unaware of?

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In this context, it is essential to understand the opportunities that children and teenagers have access to today, and the leading role of brands in this scenario. The Internet is the largest library in the history of mankind, and there are two main ways of accessing its contents: paying for them (through purchases in apps, games, websites or subscriptions, for example) or having brand advertising pay for them. In this last point, is where children have a huge opportunity to learn, be informed, entertained and grow, thanks to the fact that there are companies that, through digital advertising, contribute to universal and free access to content.

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However, behind this enormous opportunity, there is also a great responsibility of the entire industry to ensure that this access is through safe connections for them. The Internet was not designed and created for children - therefore, there are different risks when connecting, such as exposure to inappropriate content, grooming or spying on children when they are online. We must take care of all this so that this does not happen in the future.

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How can this be achieved?

Governments, through regulations and laws that protect data privacy; creators, by developing quality content suitable for each segment; brands, by understanding and promoting good practices and investing in technology that guarantees safe and entertaining experiences for children. Human beings have the historical challenge of accompanying children and adolescents in their development, and so must each of the actors that make up the digital ecosystem.

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How do regulations in the world of digital advertising vary with respect to offline media?

Regulations in digital advertising are mainly focused on protecting the privacy of minors when they are connected, keeping us anonymous. The gold standard we can say is COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.) of the U.S., which depends on the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and LGPD (General Data Protection Law) in Brazil also stand out.

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The most important points of the aforementioned regulations, and which have the greatest influence in Latin American markets, consider that personal data of minors cannot be collected without parental consent, being personal information such as location data, IP address, cookie ID and Ad ID. In this sense, it is very important to understand persistent identifiers, what they allow and what they do not allow.