4 ms·

Is it a shock to anyone when a company whos business model does not allow for return customers suddenly find themselves less in demand?

j88439h84 7y ago
> business model does not allow for return customers How's that?
- mythrwy 7y ago
  Would you buy the same DNA test a second time from the same company?
  - armadsen 7y ago
    DNA tests are a relatively new part of Ancestry’s business. I don’t have info about what percentage of their revenue they make up, but it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that their the most important part of their revenue model. The other (and older) part of their business is subscriptions to their genealogy database and related software.
    - llarsson 7y ago
      And once you have looked into you family's past and saved what info the was to find, what benefits does Ancestry offer to keep customers around? Genuine question, because I know very little about this stuff.
      - stan_rogers 7y ago
        You keep going. It's no coincidence that Ancestry's in SLC; saving your ancestors through baptism by proxy is a bit of a big deal for the Mormons/LDS. It's nice that they can make a buck off of the basic curiosity of outsiders, but the real money happens when you can make it off of people's deeply held religious beliefs. (And it is possible to believe that you're genuinely helping people with one side of your brain while taking advantage of them with the other.)
        throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
        That is fascinating. It’s like they’re selling a do-it-yourself indulgence kit.
        freeone3000 7y ago
        It beats going through microfiche copies of census records in a church basement, that's for sure.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - irrational 7y ago
        >once you have looked into you family's past I think you are severely underestimating how much time this takes. I've seen people go down this rabbit hole. It can literally consume your entire lifetime. Most people seem to underestimate how many ancestors they have - and that's not even including those that are so far back that there are no records.
    - widdershins 7y ago
      Yep my mother researched all of her familiy history, it took months and years. Then when she ran out, she researched my Dad's family history (even though they're divorced). Now she researches family history for friends or random local people. I'm assuming she's an outlier because she's a total history buff, but she's been subscribing for years.
  - moksly 7y ago
    I bought form a company that lets me delete my data, I forgot the name though, but they regularly send me an email wanting to sell me a deeper dive. I also routinely get spammed by people who want to connect with me because they have some extended family tree subscription and can see people they are like 1-3% related to. It hasn’t worked of course, I haven’t logged back in since they told me I was 99,8% Scandinavian. Shattering the family myth is that we had that one gypsy great grandmother.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  You map out your ancestry. That's great: records found, tree built, work complete. Business relationship over.
  - Udik 7y ago
    True, but: there's maybe a billion potential customers, I feel those companies are reaching only a small percentage with a pretty bad service.
  - pixelbath 7y ago
    But it's not over, because the Ancestry.com UI is the only place most of that information is usable and navigable. This necessitates an ongoing subscription for access. In addition, there's almost no "records found, tree built, work complete." It's always pulling additional "leaves" as more records are digitized.
    - lolcat5e 7y ago
      The core info can be downloaded in GED format into a free genealogy program such as gramps. There will be some extra proprietary extensions but the basics will be there. Their selling point is that it indexes everyone's tree and it will offer hints when it spots overlap. Can be very time saving, but also misleading. Check everything against official BMD records if possible.
Kiro 7y ago
I agree but I also want to point out that they do have subscriptions. My mom is a subscriber just to get access to the real-time family trees. I presume most people are not returning though.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  Once you've made the tree, isn't that the end? A relative of mine researched our family tree. After 2-3 years she presented it to everyone. Most people weren't really interested for more than 10 minutes, but tried to respect the effort she'd put in to it. Now we all have less/no future need for an ancestry service.
  - suresk 7y ago
    You can always fill out more of the tree going back further and out more. My dad loves this stuff and is always talking about the people he's paying to research vital records from churches in Slovenia to fill out more of our family tree. There are enough people who do it for a hobby and/or religious purposes that it seems like a pretty viable subscription model.
    - tralarpa 7y ago
      Can you tell me more about that? I am only using a local database (with GenealogyJ) and I don't have any experience with online databases like ancestry.com. How is your dad using it? Do the people he's paying directly enter the data online?
      - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
        Not OP but the payment bit sounds like when you pay a local records custodian to do a "search", ie look for all the Djikstra family members in the period 1700-1800. They then look through books (BMD - baptisms/births, marriages, deaths/funerals) in the church building (or wherever) and compile a list of the data. Often novices can't read the writing, and when the records are in another country/region it's easier to pay someone. Also, many records can only be searched this way, the public don't have access.

j88439h84 7y ago

> business model does not allow for return customers How's that?

mythrwy 7y ago
Would you buy the same DNA test a second time from the same company?
- armadsen 7y ago
  DNA tests are a relatively new part of Ancestry’s business. I don’t have info about what percentage of their revenue they make up, but it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that their the most important part of their revenue model. The other (and older) part of their business is subscriptions to their genealogy database and related software.
  - llarsson 7y ago
    And once you have looked into you family's past and saved what info the was to find, what benefits does Ancestry offer to keep customers around? Genuine question, because I know very little about this stuff.
    - stan_rogers 7y ago
      You keep going. It's no coincidence that Ancestry's in SLC; saving your ancestors through baptism by proxy is a bit of a big deal for the Mormons/LDS. It's nice that they can make a buck off of the basic curiosity of outsiders, but the real money happens when you can make it off of people's deeply held religious beliefs. (And it is possible to believe that you're genuinely helping people with one side of your brain while taking advantage of them with the other.)
      - throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
        That is fascinating. It’s like they’re selling a do-it-yourself indulgence kit.
      - freeone3000 7y ago
        It beats going through microfiche copies of census records in a church basement, that's for sure.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - irrational 7y ago
      >once you have looked into you family's past I think you are severely underestimating how much time this takes. I've seen people go down this rabbit hole. It can literally consume your entire lifetime. Most people seem to underestimate how many ancestors they have - and that's not even including those that are so far back that there are no records.
  - widdershins 7y ago
    Yep my mother researched all of her familiy history, it took months and years. Then when she ran out, she researched my Dad's family history (even though they're divorced). Now she researches family history for friends or random local people. I'm assuming she's an outlier because she's a total history buff, but she's been subscribing for years.
- moksly 7y ago
  I bought form a company that lets me delete my data, I forgot the name though, but they regularly send me an email wanting to sell me a deeper dive. I also routinely get spammed by people who want to connect with me because they have some extended family tree subscription and can see people they are like 1-3% related to. It hasn’t worked of course, I haven’t logged back in since they told me I was 99,8% Scandinavian. Shattering the family myth is that we had that one gypsy great grandmother.
blaser-waffle 7y ago
You map out your ancestry. That's great: records found, tree built, work complete. Business relationship over.
- Udik 7y ago
  True, but: there's maybe a billion potential customers, I feel those companies are reaching only a small percentage with a pretty bad service.
- pixelbath 7y ago
  But it's not over, because the Ancestry.com UI is the only place most of that information is usable and navigable. This necessitates an ongoing subscription for access. In addition, there's almost no "records found, tree built, work complete." It's always pulling additional "leaves" as more records are digitized.
  - lolcat5e 7y ago
    The core info can be downloaded in GED format into a free genealogy program such as gramps. There will be some extra proprietary extensions but the basics will be there. Their selling point is that it indexes everyone's tree and it will offer hints when it spots overlap. Can be very time saving, but also misleading. Check everything against official BMD records if possible.

Kiro 7y ago

I agree but I also want to point out that they do have subscriptions. My mom is a subscriber just to get access to the real-time family trees. I presume most people are not returning though.

Symbiote 7y ago
Once you've made the tree, isn't that the end? A relative of mine researched our family tree. After 2-3 years she presented it to everyone. Most people weren't really interested for more than 10 minutes, but tried to respect the effort she'd put in to it. Now we all have less/no future need for an ancestry service.
- suresk 7y ago
  You can always fill out more of the tree going back further and out more. My dad loves this stuff and is always talking about the people he's paying to research vital records from churches in Slovenia to fill out more of our family tree. There are enough people who do it for a hobby and/or religious purposes that it seems like a pretty viable subscription model.
  - tralarpa 7y ago
    Can you tell me more about that? I am only using a local database (with GenealogyJ) and I don't have any experience with online databases like ancestry.com. How is your dad using it? Do the people he's paying directly enter the data online?
    - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
      Not OP but the payment bit sounds like when you pay a local records custodian to do a "search", ie look for all the Djikstra family members in the period 1700-1800. They then look through books (BMD - baptisms/births, marriages, deaths/funerals) in the church building (or wherever) and compile a list of the data. Often novices can't read the writing, and when the records are in another country/region it's easier to pay someone. Also, many records can only be searched this way, the public don't have access.