7 ms·

Looks like a classic example of a huge market that young techies think isn't important. I don't know anyone my age who has an account on ancestry.com or who car

by IsaacL 14y ago

Looks like a classic example of a huge market that young techies think isn't important. I don't know anyone my age who has an account on ancestry.com or who cares about their family tree, but I have lots of older (and richer) relatives who do. Pet owners are another example. Apparently some of those "facebook for dogs" sites are doing pretty well, since the dog owners who use them tend to be middle-class and middle-aged - a huge market that most tech startups ignore. Think different!

thechut 14y ago
pets.com?
- kine 14y ago
  Never underestimate the amount of young engineers ignoring markets that cater to Baby Boomers.
- IsaacL 14y ago
  I know people who are building 21st century versions of pets.com and doing quite well out of it ;)
objclxt 14y ago
I had the pleasure of being next to some of the engineers from Ancestry.com in the queue for the WWDC keynote this year - it was really interesting to hear about a business that you don't think is that big, but is actually massive. They said Europe was also a very big market for them (I know genealogy is quite popular in the UK at least - the TV show that the article cites, 'Who Do You Think You Are', was originally a BBC show first), so being acquired by a European private equity firm makes some sense.
- chaostheory 14y ago
  I just wish Ancentry would spend some time and resources for the Asian market.
  - mc32 14y ago
    That's probably an opportunity for someone to pick up. Keep in mind that the data is more easily obtainable thanks to the household registries institutionalized in East Asia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system] which record familial information such as parents, professions, dates, residence changes, etc.
  - lallysingh 14y ago
    India's gonna be tough -- records tend to be maintained on sheets of leather in ink, by a fellow who'll need a decent bribe to let you see it. Enough to let him copy all his data --- maybe that's doable in scale for everyone, but who knows? (Note: this is from my Dad, and it's up-to-date as of ~2 years ago, at least for his old village).
- hef19898 14y ago
  Yeah, I believe that europe is actually a big market for that. Would be interessting to see if the ancestry.com guys hit the same fogy barrier the 30-years war presents in most of central europe. What I never imagined was that there's enough of a market to come up with a 1.6 billion company. Job well done though!
jonnathanson 14y ago
Many young techies are accustomed to chasing one specific type of profit function: namely, massive quantity x low price. Ancestry.com is a good example of the opposite, though potentially very lucrative function: small quantity x high price. The site has only a few million active users, but each of them pays a decent chunk of change per month. Those users also use the site very frequently, and for long periods at a time. (Again, contrast this with a service like Facebook: lots of users, each one presumably browsing or using in very quick and sporadic bursts). People forget that a market involves both # of users -and- willingness to pay. There's more than one way to reach a large addressable market.
mikecolella 14y ago
At least a few young techies knew it was important... http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/25/ancestry-com-acquires-archives-com-from-inflection-for-100-million/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/25/ancestry-com-acquires-archi... http://inflection.com/about/leadership.html http://inflection.com/about/leadership.html The founders of Inflection were in their early 20's.
- prom3th3us 14y ago
  Yep. Was a fun place to work, not so much anymore.
  - oconnor0 14y ago
    What has changed?
daeken 14y ago
> I don't know anyone my age who has an account on ancestry.com or who cares about their family tree, but I have lots of older (and richer) relatives who do. Not sure how old you are, but I'm 24 and have a premium Ancestry.com account. My family tree is really strange, so tracking through it is interesting to me.
just2n 14y ago
So we seem to have a formula: something a lot of people use + dogs = popular thing. We have Facebook pet pages. We have dog/cat memes. So I've come up with the next multi-billion dollar project: Ancestry.com for pets. Gonna be HUGE.
- Evbn 14y ago
  You meem the American Kennel Club and pedigree?
hashtree 14y ago
Some of the best kept "under wraps" business models are in these areas. A surprising amount of interesting/challenging problems exist, and they have real impacts on peoples' lives. They are traditionally backed by large companies, but a talented/knowledgable/passionate group can shake things up in a big way (with stable/long term revenue streams). Interesting to observe the "what is your passive income" type threads and realize just how many in this community are unaware/under-appreciate some of these amazing business models. Not shocking to see medium sized 1-man projects to have lifetime revenues over 1 million. One of my first gigs was at one of these types of companies. While the engineering was deplorable (one reason I left), the insight into the business side of things has forever changed my path.

by IsaacL 14y ago

thechut 14y ago

pets.com?

kine 14y ago
Never underestimate the amount of young engineers ignoring markets that cater to Baby Boomers.
IsaacL 14y ago
I know people who are building 21st century versions of pets.com and doing quite well out of it ;)

objclxt 14y ago

I had the pleasure of being next to some of the engineers from Ancestry.com in the queue for the WWDC keynote this year - it was really interesting to hear about a business that you don't think is that big, but is actually massive. They said Europe was also a very big market for them (I know genealogy is quite popular in the UK at least - the TV show that the article cites, 'Who Do You Think You Are', was originally a BBC show first), so being acquired by a European private equity firm makes some sense.

chaostheory 14y ago
I just wish Ancentry would spend some time and resources for the Asian market.
- mc32 14y ago
  That's probably an opportunity for someone to pick up. Keep in mind that the data is more easily obtainable thanks to the household registries institutionalized in East Asia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system] which record familial information such as parents, professions, dates, residence changes, etc.
- lallysingh 14y ago
  India's gonna be tough -- records tend to be maintained on sheets of leather in ink, by a fellow who'll need a decent bribe to let you see it. Enough to let him copy all his data --- maybe that's doable in scale for everyone, but who knows? (Note: this is from my Dad, and it's up-to-date as of ~2 years ago, at least for his old village).
hef19898 14y ago
Yeah, I believe that europe is actually a big market for that. Would be interessting to see if the ancestry.com guys hit the same fogy barrier the 30-years war presents in most of central europe. What I never imagined was that there's enough of a market to come up with a 1.6 billion company. Job well done though!

jonnathanson 14y ago

Many young techies are accustomed to chasing one specific type of profit function: namely, massive quantity x low price. Ancestry.com is a good example of the opposite, though potentially very lucrative function: small quantity x high price. The site has only a few million active users, but each of them pays a decent chunk of change per month. Those users also use the site very frequently, and for long periods at a time. (Again, contrast this with a service like Facebook: lots of users, each one presumably browsing or using in very quick and sporadic bursts). People forget that a market involves both # of users -and- willingness to pay. There's more than one way to reach a large addressable market.

mikecolella 14y ago

At least a few young techies knew it was important... http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/25/ancestry-com-acquires-archives-com-from-inflection-for-100-million/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/25/ancestry-com-acquires-archi... http://inflection.com/about/leadership.html http://inflection.com/about/leadership.html The founders of Inflection were in their early 20's.

prom3th3us 14y ago
Yep. Was a fun place to work, not so much anymore.
- oconnor0 14y ago
  What has changed?

daeken 14y ago

> I don't know anyone my age who has an account on ancestry.com or who cares about their family tree, but I have lots of older (and richer) relatives who do. Not sure how old you are, but I'm 24 and have a premium Ancestry.com account. My family tree is really strange, so tracking through it is interesting to me.

just2n 14y ago

So we seem to have a formula: something a lot of people use + dogs = popular thing. We have Facebook pet pages. We have dog/cat memes. So I've come up with the next multi-billion dollar project: Ancestry.com for pets. Gonna be HUGE.

Evbn 14y ago
You meem the American Kennel Club and pedigree?

hashtree 14y ago

Some of the best kept "under wraps" business models are in these areas. A surprising amount of interesting/challenging problems exist, and they have real impacts on peoples' lives. They are traditionally backed by large companies, but a talented/knowledgable/passionate group can shake things up in a big way (with stable/long term revenue streams). Interesting to observe the "what is your passive income" type threads and realize just how many in this community are unaware/under-appreciate some of these amazing business models. Not shocking to see medium sized 1-man projects to have lifetime revenues over 1 million. One of my first gigs was at one of these types of companies. While the engineering was deplorable (one reason I left), the insight into the business side of things has forever changed my path.