Back in 2007 I did a column on TeeBeeDee, a social network aimed at baby boomers. I’d spent some time looking at the space, and thought TBD was the best designed site, avoiding Eons age restrictions and fascination with death and building something a bit broader than Gather. The site borrowed heavily from what worked on sites like Yelp and Facebook, the design was delightful and it gave you fun, addictive get-to-know-me activities. I was also incredibly impressed by its founder Robin Wolaner. (Pictured)
But there was still a central question: Would a social network aimed at baby boomers appeal to the demographic? As it turned out, no. The site is shutting down. Below is the letter to users from Wolaner.
A Message I Didn’t Want to SendJune 30, 2009I regret to have to inform you that TeeBeeDee will be shutting down by July 13, 2009. We thought we had raised sufficient money to get us to a sustainable business, but many factors changed in the 2 years since our launch. As you have no doubt noticed in the past few months, we lacked the resources to continue developing the product to meet the needs of our community.
We will have much to say to you, and to each other, in these next two weeks. Just as we’ve shared the experiences of our lifetimes here at TeeBeeDee, we will be sharing this goodbye. For me, I can say that the people I have met at this site, and those with whom I’ve worked these past years, have been a revelation. I have learned so much from so many of you. We have thrilled to marriages, and romances, and lifelong friendships, and support to those in need. Anyone who says “virtual” friendships are less than real ones, didn’t spend time in this community.
Kat has posted tips about how to save what matters to you at TBD. And 500 TBDers have already joined a network at Ning: http://www.teebeedee.ning.com to stay connected.
As the founder, I’d like to close by saying that while our business opportunity proved disappointing, the contributions from our members rarely disappointed. I am proud to call so many of you my friends, and thank you for caring about TeeBeeDee.
Robin
Founder/CEO
Baby boomers want to be where their kids and grandkids are posting photos.
That was my immediate thought. To me the whole idea would have been a nonstarter.
*crickets*
It’s shame too, but there would be SO much business in this age group if they actually knew what a computer was.
TBD was based on the mistaken belief that catering to an age-base segment is enough to support an entire business. Such a model relies on stereotypes, and stereotypes invariably offend some people and exclude others.
If you consider the variety of people over 40, you can see the absurdity of this. It also assumes that someone in their 40s would not want to socialize with those under 40.
The managers of such a business are caught in a bind. They’re playing with fire through stereotypes, but if they don’t use any stereotypes, they become generic, and Facebook already has the generic social network market locked up.
The better model is to focus on a specific interest — whether that be music, politics, dating, surfing, cats, the Lakers, whatever — and expand from there.
Well said.
Agree. Interests have no age.
No one likes to be reminded how old they are. Sites like these are doing exactly that.
There is a market for such a website however, seeing how most of us would hate to be friends with mom and dad on Facebook – no more drunk party pics.
The problem though is that older people want to hang out where their kids are, and the kids don’t want that.
Let’s be more specific and cut to the chase:
Men want to socialize often enough with younger women. An older woman founds a company promoting the idea that men her age socialize with her and her age group. This is called an attempt at social engineering (and protectionism from social competition) but you can’t change human nature. All social networking sites will fail that dissuade young women from joining.
Bingo. Spot on.
I agree completely. The demographic is way too broad. Appealing to baby boomers along the lines of a specific interest would make more sense.
I’m a boomer and I’d never heard of them today. Where did they advertise? I can’t remember them being discussed even once in the tech news or on the other social networks I frequent. No wonder they failed.
They were a typical Web 2.0 company: they used advertising as their revenue model, but didn’t believe in doing it themselves.
Completely agree. Probably should have changed their name to be “name not yet determined” because tbd is very vague. Does that mean the site is still developing so “come back later at anoter time” because it sounds like a landing page like website construction, opening later, hah! If it was a site like E-vite, it could have promoted cool parties but the destination was not yet determined, so keep refershing the page! Hidden prize money TBD!
I’m a boomer and I’d never heard of them until today. Where did they advertise? I can’t remember them being discussed even once in the tech news or on the other social networks I frequent. No wonder they failed.
The social intersection online between generations will become a broader point as more generations pass. Like BetaMax, it was probably a little before its time.
Hey Robin – better to have tried than failed than to not have tried. Kudos on that.
As to the comments above about mistaken belief and no wonder why it failed – those who can’t do, criticize so let it be.
There is no-one reading this that knows for sure what the next thing is that will work. . . twitter, facebook, YouTube are all hindsight 20/20 and only succeeded because people like you went out and tried it.
Take care
What if you look at it this way: “Better to have tried and lost $4.8 million than to not have tried…”
Or is cold, hard rationalism too mean-spirited for the TechCrunch crowd?
I’d rather read insights from others here about business practices than attend a virtual support group for entrepreneurs.
P.S. No one’s picking on Robin here. I haven’t read any ad hominem attacks here yet. If anyone, it’s the investors who should be criticized for not asking the hard questions.
Btw, I just checked out Eons.com and happened to click on a member profile.
Man, they’re partying like its MySpace from 2004 over there!
>Funding: $4.8M
OUCH!!
is it just me or arent people in their 40s more likely to be on facebook than choose to be classified alongside the baby boomers who are, in general pensioners?
then when you get into the 60 70 + age, how many are going to actually go on the web? i would have thought you would be extremely optimistic to say half?
boomers are the fastest growing online demographic, yes (and they have money to spend). once you get into the 60’s it’s now about 75% penetration (although ‘online penetration’ wasn’t defined – did that just mean basic browsing and email, for example) and dropped off pretty rapidly at age ~70. I do a lot of work in senior centres (which is considered anything aged 55+ ) and that curve seems to fit with the people I deal with.
and by the way to echo puranjay, having also checked out eons, i would just like to say if your epileptic, be careful!
“And 500 TBDers have already joined a network at Ning”
Wow…those are staggering numbers. What did you spend all the millions on? Seriously, building a soc net site that can sustain the minuscule traffic TBD had shouldnt cost anywhere above $100k on the high end. But of course they needed PR people, marketing people, community managers, BD people, etc etc…might want to prove the idea before bringing on the bloat.
They could have just used Ning for free in the first place.
They can all come to our site instead….. we’re not going anywhere! http://www.StoryOfMyLife.com/
Is it just me or do all Sarah’s posts start with “I”, “me” and some hyperlinking to “I & me”?
Sure its all about content, but I find this stuck-up form rather annoying.
Thank God. I knew it was no good from day one, even though it was aimed at me. I could care less where the older people are; I want to go where the interesting people are, no matter what the age. Hope Eons fails, too. They are both ageistic. Is there such a word?
It’s a fallacy that online communities work best as one soup of the unwashed masses. Ever since the early days of Usenet where every pet group with any mass always wanted to splinter into their own pet.sub.sub.group, online communities tend to splinter. Facebook is really an anomaly in the past 25 years of online communities, not the winner-takes-all rule.
And sure, Ms. Hardaway, maybe it’s fun to hang out with the 20-somethings when you’re 50, but after a while that gets to be as sad and pathetic as a slobbering midlife crisis wreck, with his Porsche and Viagra, parading around with arm candy that just learned how to apply lipstick.
Cougars aren’t pathetic if they are in better shape than the men their own age and younger men are really interested. And what if the older man can bench press more than the average 20 something man, doesn’t need Viagra or a Porsche and still dates the 20 somethings because they value his knowledge on top of the benchpressing? And why insult what could be a Harvard Student or a Sorbonne student with the lipstick comment? TBD didn’t sound like a dating site but men will socialize with younger women and marry them. We need to be mindful of sour grapes.
Did TBD force people to display their age in profiles? If so, that in itself would have spelled the death knell.
Baby Boomers already have a place where they will all gather. It’s called HELL. That’s right. The spawn of the greatest generation, is apparently the worst generation. All rampant materialism, greed, and evilness in the world can be traced to this last group of back stabbers. All corporate speak BS(where’s the cover page on your TPS report) can be traced to these worthless suckups and yes man.
I hear Satan is hiring for the surge in new residents coming over the next 20 years.
F the baby boomers.
The problem though is that older people want to hang out where their kids are, and the kids don’t want that.
I’d rather read insights from others here about business practices than attend a virtual support group for entrepreneurs.