John Echeverry called into our offices in Madrid to tell us the story of his start-up company, Banana-Connection, the new social network for children, which will undoubtedly give plenty to talk about in the coming years.

'Youth' is the main feature of the Banana-Connection project. 'Youth', because it has just been born; in fact, it is still in the testing phase. 'Youth', also due to its target public, children between the ages of 7 and 13, and 'youth' for the optimism and creative spirit which its CEO transmits.

Banana-Connection is a service for young people started by a ten-year-old boy named Mateo, the son of John, who was the first person privileged to have a profile on this social network. One day he commented to his father on the difficulty of finding a 'Facebook for kids', a social environment where children could talk face to face in a secure environment, share hobbies and interests, as well as meet new friends.

Besides the initial idea, services such as the following were added on: videos, games, music and a bulletin board. Furthermore, a marked educational layer was included. This is a characteristic that widens the scope of Banana-Connection into a community where children, parents and teachers interact with each other, although the children are the real stars of the show.

All this makes up a business model based on a threefold approach: content, traffic and advertising. The latter allows us to reach a very specific and qualified niche in a contextual and segmented manner. The revenue model is also compatible with a clear proposal of corporate social responsibility, linking the business side with social commitment. In summary, it is a sound idea with solid principles that will make a great success of Banana-Connection, the social network of the children who are reluctant to use Facebook.