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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

But I wonder whom they're hiring to build these sites?
Posted by Jill | 6:50 AM
If social networking sites for boomers and seniors are the Next Big Thing on the Web, are they still refusing to hire anyone over 40 to build them?

Older people are sticky.

That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.

The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles.

And they are seeking to capitalize on what investors say may be a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next.

“Teens are tire kickers — they hang around, cost you money and then leave,” said Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and author of the blog “Infectious Greed.” Where Friendster was once the hot spot, Facebook and MySpace now draw the crowds of young people online.

“The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics,” Mr. Kedrosky added, “not the least of which is that they hang around.”

This prospective and relative stickiness is helping drive a wave of new investment into boomer and older-oriented social networking sites that offer like-minded (and like-aged) individuals discussion and dating forums, photo-sharing, news and commentary, and chatter about diet, fitness and health care.

Last week, VantagePoint Ventures, an early investor in MySpace, announced that it had led a $16.5 million round of financing for Multiply, a social networking site aimed at people who are settled.

In August, Shasta Ventures led a $4.8 million financing round for TeeBeeDee, a site coming out of its test stage this month. The name is short for “To Be Determined” (as in: just because you’re not trolling for a mate on MySpace doesn’t mean your life is over.)

Also in August, Johnson & Johnson spent $10 million to $20 million to acquire Maya’s Mom, a social networking site for parents, according to a person briefed on the deal. The site has been in existence about a year.


Maya's Granny, call your lawyer.

Let's take a spin around who runs these sites.

Jeff Taylor, founder and CEO of Eons, says "If you’re under 50, join me in being an evangelist for Eons and challenge yourself to see how many friends and family you can inspire to live the biggest life possible. Be loud and be proud about your age." The video linked here shows that while the senior staff appears to be well-represented by those in the target demographic, the staff is disproportionately under 40. The company gives lip service to encouraging "Eons members (age 50+)" to apply, but with a technical staff that isn't representative of this ethos, Taylor might want to think about providing training in the skills the company uses so as to more actively recruit the site's target demographic.

This is Peter Pezaris, the founder of Multiply.com. Doesn't look like a boomer, does he? Bet he doesn't hire them to work on his site, either.

Jerry Cover of ReZoom looks like he might be approaching the target demographic for his site. But before you rush to sign up, you should probably know that he's a founder of Lighthouse Family Ministries -- something his bio at ReZoom doesn't mention. This is all well and good, but since "sharing the love of Christ" is part of what Lighthouse does, and the "About Us" page at ReZoom refers to "inspirational stories about ReZoomers just like you", expect a Christian focus.

TeeBeeDee's founder, Robin Wolaner, is 50 and the other founders are all 50-plus. TeeBeeDee's job page has the boilerplate nondiscrimination blurb, but says nothing about welcoming "experienced" applicants.

I know that Gen-X likes to put the responsibility for everything that's wrong with the world in the laps of baby boomers, but it's surprising that it's taken this long for social networking to hit the boomer community. With many of the bloggers that I met at Yearly Kos and with whom I've become acquainted since being around my age, and with the keep-up-with-the-youngsters boomer mentality, it's overdue that entrepreneurs realize that web sites targeted at this elephant going through a snake could be a good idea. It would be nice, however, if these sites made an effort to hire engineers, programmers, and writers in the age group of their target demographic. There are a lot of them out there, trying to cobble together an income doing what they can because corporate America just doesn't want them anymore.

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