It’s rare enough to have an industry-leading Web service that is based in Canada, let alone two of the top 10. But if you define “online virtual worlds aimed at children” as an industry, then that’s what we’ve got with Club Penguin and Webkinz. The former just got acquired by Disney for an eye-popping $700-million, after less than two years in business.

In what is sure to become a legendary Canadian example of bootstrapping a company, the popular social networking/game site was created by three friends in Kelowna, B.C. as a wholesome place for their young children to play and was completely self-funded by credit cards, angel investors and friends (much to the chagrin of several VCs).

Webkinz is a little different from Club Penguin. While the latter is strictly an online phenomenon, Webkinz — which also got its start about two years ago, but in Toronto — is a clever blend of online virtual world and offline toy. The company behind the site, a third-generation toy company called Ganz, came up with the idea of creating a toy that had a virtual doppelganger on a social-networking style website. Webkinz plush animals (which cost $15 each) come with a code that gives their owner access to the Webkinz world. They can then design a “house” for their avatar, and buy toys or furniture with their virtual money, or Kinz Cash. They also have to take care of their virtual pet, and players can chat — but only using stock phrases generated by the site — as well as play games and win Kinz Cash.

Club Penguin and Webkinz are alike in one thing, apart from their appeal for young children and “tweens”: although Ganz (a private company) doesn’t release membership figures, it and Club Penguin appear to have roughly the same number of subscribers — about 4 million or so, according to several estimates. Does that mean Webkinz might be worth $700-million too? After all, Club Penguin reportedly talked to several other companies about an acquisition, including Sony, which was ready to offer $500-million, as well as News Corp. (although Ganz itself has not confirmed any previous talks).

The Webkinz business model is slightly different, however. While both sites have a free section in which kids can play to a limited extent, in order to do anything more elaborate they have to become members — which in Club Penguin’s case costs $5.95 a month or $60 for a year. Webkinz owners can get access to everything by buying a single toy, which only costs $15, although many owners (such as the woman we wrote about in this story) have half a dozen Webkinz or more. But while Club Penguin’s revenues may be higher, Ganz has likely made about $60-million already on its virtual venture.

Whether that is appealing enough for a takeover bid is difficult to say, and it’s also unclear whether Ganz would be willing to sell Webkinz, which is likely a blockbuster cash generator for the company. One (possibly hopeful) venture capitalist blogged recently that he could see a spin-off, acquisition or even an IPO in the company’s future, but Ganz spokesman Susan McVeigh said late Thursday that the toymaker likely wouldn’t be interested. “Ganz is a privately-held family business and is very proud of that,” she said.

Three hard-working, family-oriented guys from the picturesque mountain town of Kelowna, B.C. A website that is filled with nothing but wholesome, kid-friendly entertainment featuring that most kid-friendly of animals, the penguin — and not a single advertisement, pop-up window or spyware-installing toolbar. The only way the Club Penguin story could be any more Canadian is if the site featured Mounties in it. The company even donates 10 per cent of its profits to charities involving underprivileged youth. If Mother Theresa had kids, this is the website they would play on. The site is so clean it almost squeaks. Congratulations to the Club Penguin team — nice guys (and Canadians) do finish first sometimes.

As was widely rumoured a couple of months ago, Club Penguin is being acquired, but not by Sony, who was said to be deep in takeover talks with the company when I last wrote about it. Instead, the wildly successful virtual world for kids — which was started by three guys from Kelowna, B.C. as a side project about a year and a half ago — is being bought by The House That Mickey Built.

At the time of the Sony rumours, Disney was said to be interested in buying Webkinz, another Canadian-built virtual world for kids. According to the Wall Street Journal and PaidContent, the price tag on the current deal is $350-million cash plus an “earnout” of $350-million based on future performance. That’s a pretty handsome return on a little over a year’s worth of work, and from what I have been told — by at least one VC who was kicking himself for not being able to get in on the deal — ClubPenguin.com had not taken any substantial venture capital money whatsoever. The Globe did a story on the guys who created the site last fall.

Further reading:

Staci at PaidContent has a good overview of the deal (so does the Journal) including some comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger, and points out that members of Club Penguin are pretty protective of the site (which carries no advertising of any kind). Mike Arrington says that previous talks with Sony and others got derailed in part because Club Penguin donates a chunk of its profits to charity.

I didn’t get a chance to write about this yesterday when it broke, but I think it’s pretty amazing (if true) that ClubPenguin is talking with Sony about getting acquired for somewhere in the neighbourhood of $500-million or so (TechCrunch says $500-million, but PaidContent says that the price is closer to $450-million). Om Malik has some details here. Either way, those are pretty amazing sums of money for a company that has only really been around for a year or so. As my Globe and Mail colleague Barrie McKenna wrote in a story last fall, the company was started by a couple of guys in the relatively sleepy (at least when I was there last) resort town of Kelowna, B.C.

Parents with kids, the founders deliberately chose not to include advertising on the site, and in fact haven’t advertised the site either — growth has been entirely through word-of-mouth. Judging by the speed with which it spread through my family, from eight-year-old daughter to friends and cousins, it is the childhood equivalent of Facebook (as is its cousin Webkinz, also a Canadian success story aimed at kids, which Om says Disney has looked at).

Two big questions remain: Can ClubPenguin keep growing at a rate fast enough that it makes $500-million look like a good deal? And can the company find a partner that has the same philosophy about marketing to kids?