Can Jeff Taylor revive Eons, his dying social network for aging Boomers? A few weeks ago, he dropped the minimum age requirement of 50. And, today, he is giving his old lady of a site a facelift. The redesigned site now has new navigation, new organization centered around groups, and new search that helps members more easily find others with the same interests—whether that’s perennial gardening, books, or plus-50 hookups. “Now,” says Taylor, “if you say I want to go to Italy, you can meet all the other people that want to go to Italy. If your first car was a ‘67 Ford Mustang, you can meet other people who had that same car.”
Taylor, who founded Monster.com, finally realized that what his dwindling members wanted was a social network, not a portal for Sunsetters. Most of the intense activity was around the groups on the site, and so that is where he is focusing his efforts now. He also realized that nobody wants to go to a social network to be reminded about death. So he is spinning off the obituary section as a new site (and company) called Tributes. Eons is the majority shareholder, but Dow Jones is also a strategic investor. The Financial Post puts the investment in Tributes at $4.2 million. (Legacy.com is the leader in online obits).
Taylor also threw out a custom search engine called Cranky that returned results with a preference for the top-5000 sites that people over 50 visit, as measured by Compete.com. Search, it turns out, is very rarely age-specific. People just want to find what they are looking for. And they don’t like being called cranky.
These are all sound moves, and the site is better for it. But despite the redesign, and the $32 million that Sequoia and other investors have put into the company, its basic premise is still flawed—that people over 50, like children, need their own safe place on the Web to congregate. Some old people just aren’t interested in the Internet other than to check their e-mail, check their stock portfolio, and see pictures of their grandkids. Eons won’t draw them either. Then there is a whole other set who are completely at ease with the Web, and don’t need a walled-off area especially for geriatrics. They want to find people who share their interests, no matter how old they are. Finally, there is the subset of Boomers who only feel comfortable with people their own age. Those are the only people who Eons might appeal to.
Currently, that amounts to only 283,000 people a month—the number of unique visitors going to Eons, according to comScore. The best way to get that number up is to create vibrant communities of interest, regardless of age. The nature of many of the activities in these groups naturally skews towards an older demographic. But that should be a byproduct of the site, not the organizing principle.
One of the distinguishing features of Eons is the “Lifepath” on each profile page—a timeline that marks important memories in each member’s life and aspirations for the future. Members who share similar points in their Lifepath can easily find each other. But in other areas, Eons is lacking even the most basic social networking features like third-party applications. Taylor is a marketer, not a technologist. OpenSocial? “Our audience doesn’t want to take a widget because they think it is stealing,” he claims. When I ask him during a recent visit to my office if profile pages would now have activity streams (like the news feeds that have helped make Facebok so popular), he looks at me blankly and asks back, “What?” Old people, they just don’t get it (and Taylor is not even 50).
Bravo Eons! Aging people really need a helping hand
who is the main sponsor, depends undergarments?
The spinoff sounds a lot like Respectance.com which is also trying to build a social network around memories, and the celebration of life. There is a market out there for people who want to gather around tributes, the question becomes how to tap into it - we’ll see how they get along…
Erick, repeating personal conversations (and possibly distorting them and taking them out of context) is pretty shady and disrespectful to Taylor.
It also puts TC firmly in the gossip/trash category of industry news sites.
I’m not defending Eons as I think it’s a crappy idea and Sequoia and others deserve to lose their investments on this.
I just don’t think that style of reporting is very acceptable (regardless of who it’s about)
I’ve been following this interesting discussion about Eons here and over at Mashable.
I wonder if this debate about Eons or other websites targeting baby boomers, comes down to the fact that “old people aren’t interested in the internet” as you suggest or the fact that website developers have not done a good job in targeting the baby boomer generation?
There is lots of data out there to suggest that baby boomers are one of the fastest growing demographics in terms of internet usage but I’m not sure marketers have found the right key just yet.
I don’t think these changes at Eons should be seen as a bad thing for companies targeting the baby boomer generation. I believe it’s just a matter of time before companies figure out the correct way to do it.
Like Seth Godin says “Here’s what we used to do: Create —> Edit —> Launch. Here’s what happens now: Create —> Launch —> Edit —> Launch —> repeat.”
It will be interesting to follow this debate. Thanks for the great article.
Let’s just all agree that Jeff Taylor did well with Monster but may fail here. He doesn’t have the magic touch afterall.
Heres the flaw in this site, and you alluded to it. The only people who would use Eosn are those people who need a walled off area AND are comfortable using the internet, meeting online, putting personal information out there.
Dont those two segments seem to contradict?
My mom isnt internet savvy and will only use the internet for certain things. The only reason she would join a social network is to keep in touch with her kids and grand kids.
And we know where they are………yes my 67 year old, non tech savvy mother, is on Facebook. She would never joining EONS, regardless of how walled off its.
“When I ask him during a recent visit to my office if profile pages would now have activity streams (like the news feeds that have helped make Facebok so popular), he looks at me blankly and asks back, “What?” Old people, they just don’t get it (and Taylor is not even 50)”
Wow!!!
JUST
ONE
BIG
FREAKING
“WOW”
Eons might not have 3rd party applications or news feeds like any of the other players. But they do have apps for those players, see
http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....&ref=s
Irony.
What does Tributes add that Legacy.com doesn’t do? Legacy.com is a successful obituary site founded during the first dotcom boom, which collaborates with more than 500 newspapers in the US, Canada, and UK.
Jeff shoulda gone disease. He shoulda created a social network for shut-ins and people stricken with various chronic, debilitating diseases. They coulda had an area for each disease… Lupus… Cystic Fibrosis… MD… Hepatitis… Cancer. Come on our site and find your disease, and find lotsa other people just like you who wanna commiserate. It’d be fun (in a relative sense). And would make a whole lot more sense than Eons.
As the leader in the funeral homes industry we have vested interest in the obituary space. Next day or two we are releasing our memorial platform, LifeMemory(.com). Will definitely give these folks a run for their money.
Cheers
Sahar Sarid
Recall Media Group
http://www.FuneralHomes.com
http://www.Conceptualist.com - Blog
http://www.ASSISTA.com - Life project
“Some old people just aren’t interested in the Internet other than to check their e-mail, check their stock portfolio, and see pictures of their grandkids.”
Very happy to see you include the “see pictures of their grandkids” part. It’s a huge part of being a grandparent.
I’m 52 and I’ve always found everything about this site incredibly insulting. People who are older are not morons, they are people with far more experience than the average reader of this blog. The entire sight sounded like it was designed by someone who never actually interacted with older people as peers. Stupid and the fact that they raised this much money just reinforces my sense that a lot of VC money is being distributed by young MBAs who don’t have any real life experience.
And I agree with Joe T. even if he is joking- people love to bitch about their illnesses and infirmities. Maybe you can raise $10mm and build it. Just do yourself a favor and find some older folks who get it to help you…
That would site, not sight- perhaps I am losing it!
@Martin, the founder Taylor also built Monster.com so he definitely had real life success online.
Erick, how old are you? I assumed you were in your late 30’s early 40’s?
I’ve helped build some pretty cool social apps and I’m almost 50. Please don’t associate age with cluelessness. It makes you look clueless.
I have to say I could not agree with you more when it come to your comment “The best way to get that number up is to create vibrant communities of interest, regardless of age”. There are plenty of very smart tech people who are older (Gates, Ballmer, Mitch kapor) just to name a couple. It all comes down to what your offering and how you offer it. I’m in total agreement with Martin and Sexy Boomer. Taylor and company need to listen to their comments find out what people want and Eons can and will work. Contact me, I’ll help!!!!
Wow when did 50 something become old?? Good for them and much success.
Fairly decent article and then the author reveals his true ageist feelings about people older than himself when he says “Old people, they just don’t get it.” No, Schonfield, that statement proves that you are the one who doesn’t get it.
Come on Arrington, you don’t need this kind of blatant ageism on your blog.
WTF? I just re-read the article and he also uses the phrase “old lady of a site” WTF is that supposed to mean? You really do have a problem with ageism Schonfield. Get help.
I’m near 60, do my own websites and was totally insulted by just the tv adds for Eons and their Cranky search engine. I agree that boomers are either tech savy or not, but they dont want to be discriminated against by a site feeding them technopablum.
There are several sites about diseases (I’m a retired surgeon) with social networks but they are not age related.
As a boomer, I’m looking for unique products that make something easier to do or faster, special interest sites ( cooking, home redesign) but I’m not looking for one site fits all just because of my age. Age is not a factor on the net…practicality, reliability and quickly getting the information available are more valuable to anyone who uses a computer.
The ‘new and improved’ Eons site unfortunately still misses the boat. I think the flaw in the thinking is that people over 50 want to communicate with other people who are interested in what they are interested in (photography, crock pot cooking, etc.) The site becomes no more than a message board and forum for hobbyists.
The fact is that people over 50 are interested in more things than they realize. We want content that exposes us to concerns, issues and controversies that stimulate us, entertain us or just plain satisfy our curiosity. That’s what we mean by ‘letting life in.’ We relish the diversity of life after 50.
Old people and young people have very similar macro interests — share experiences, consume good content, meet new people with similar interests and passions and to act socially with the same. Doesn’t myspace offer that? and facebook, Hi5, bebo, friendster, sodahead, and even sites like livejournal, xanga, etc…
I love how if you’ve succeeded once with a startup, any VC firm will give you any amount of money to do any idea.
It’s surprising how few true “serial entrepreneurs” there are like Marc Andressen who are actually successful. Most people realize they had a 25% chance of succeeding the first time, got it, and forget they have a 75% chance of failing the 2nd time around (you can replace those numbers with whatever you’d like).
(1) eons has widgets. Look on the lower-right of this profile page, for example: http://www.eons.com/members/profile/suzy)
(2) eons also has activity streams/friend feeds. if the author had created an account and actually used the site, he would have noticed. They appear on the “my eons” page, where they are very useful. they aren’t really necessary on the profile page because each form of user activity has its own brick. i worked at eons while this feature was being developed, and i can say for sure that jeff taylor knows about it! i hope this simply was a miscommunication, but it feels more like a cheap shot.
Both of these features have been in the app for several months.
I often find myself wishing techcrunch would put a little more elbow grease into its reviews. shooting from the hip is fun but not always accurate!
If I were looking at a site that really targeted the over 50 then I would be looking at http://www.rl.tv The are a entire television network devoted to the over 50 crowd and I am sure will eventually incorporate eons style communities if they haven’t already. This market is sure to boom in the next few years but I don’t think it will be on eons.
So someone born in ‘64 is a Baby Boomer? All this time I’m thinking I’m Gen-X. That’s what they called 20-somethings in the early 1990’s, anyway.
is it any wonder they are stumbling? This eons commercial says it all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhA97pJ8lcg
Another similar, very interactive and visual tribute/memory site was also just launched by FuneralHomes.com / Recall Media Group’s Sahar Sarid:
http://www.conceptualist.com/ 2008/02/13/funeralhome scom-releases-new-memo rial-site-lifememoryco m/
Digital aliens need a site to communicate with the digital natives- agreed and ie, Grandma looking at pictures of kids and grandkids. What grandma doesnt want to do is look at pictures of grandchildren frolicking with their friends and all the spice that goes alongside.
The key to breaking this market is getting the natives to use a separate site to communicate with the aliens in addition to their normal social networking profiles, one that is quick and easy to use and doesnt distract them from the hours they spend on FB and myspace.
Interest groups arent relevent, privacy is. Widgets have some relevency but only if limited and are applicable to the age group ie stocks, annuities, weather, etc.
Now, if someone were to give me $m I would show ‘em
exiva.com
share your life, treasure the privacy
http://www.exiva.com
@4, it wasn’t a “personal conversation,” it was an on-the-record interview.
@26, I appreciate you sticking up for your former employer. But if you read the post, I am talking about “third-party” widgets. You are correct that Eons has its own widgets. My point is that it is not tapping into all the creativity of outside developers via OpenSocial or engaging with Facebook like Bebo did. That is sort of a no-brainer for any social network.
On the activity streams, they were not apparent to me when I looked at the site. If they are buried and I missed them, I apologize. But it is the CEO’s job to explain the features of his site when asked about them instead of giving me a blank stare. When I explained to him what an activity stream is, he didn’t say, “Oh yeah, we have those.” it obviously not a main component of the site.
As to the accusations of ageism on my part, please. I couldn’t agree more with Martin Edic (@14) and Larrian (@22), any site that treats older users like morons is the one that is ageist.
The last line about old people not getting it was meant to be facetious, for the two of you who didn’t get it.
I never really gave “age” much of a thought. Since I was in my 20’s I chose activities I liked and did them…did not matter the age of the people I did them with….still do!
Boomers have a pretty big age gap ..Johnny Depp is a Boomer and Harrison Ford isn’t
I doubt people like Johnny Depp (or myself for that matter) think too much about DEPENDS.
I think the same as I did when I was 20… what do I have to do (work wise) to support the lifestyle that I like (horses, off roading, boating etc). If I want to read about the scary medical life and death stuff I will look at AARP .
otherwise I will just have some fun with it all….
I have played around with a BOOMER style site (ah well no giant VC $ to make it ubber slick…wish I did) but my boomer idea is not about an age category…
http://www.boomermagazine.biz