Geni.com

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Geni, Inc.
Type Private start-up
Founded June 2006
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, USA
Key people David O. Sacks, founder and CEO
Alan Braverman, founder and CTO
Industry Genealogy, Social networking services
Revenue none
Website www.geni.com

Geni.com is a genealogy-related social networking website[1] launched in beta mode on January 16, 2007 by Web 2.0 company Geni, Inc.[2] Over ten million profiles were created on Geni as of November 12, 2007.[3]

Contents

[edit] Investors

The Founders Fund, a private venture capital firm, invested "more than $1 million”.[4]

Charles River Ventures, a private venture capital firm, invested US$10 million dollars.[5]

[edit] Website features

geni.com website
geni.com website

At the website users enter names and email addresses of their parents, siblings, and other relatives, as well as a user profile with various biographical information. From there users may graphically manipulate sections of their connections network to create a complete personal family tree.[4]

[edit] Awards

Members of each family can upload pictures, invite other members of the family, can add family events to the timeline, send messages, gifts and family news. Each user is given user stats which include how many photos they have uploaded ect and are each given awards if they are within the top 13 people of doing so. The family sizes vary with the biggest family's containing 900 relatives such as the family led by 'Yaar awaan'.


The service uses the contact information to invite additional members to join, and builds a comprehensive social network database from the information collectively entered by members. For now users may only see information belonging to themselves and to people in their immediate network who have given them permission.[6]


[edit] GEDCOM

Genealogists can now import their family history into Geni using the popular GEDCOM format. The launch of this features makes it easy to move their research into Geni to easily share it with their family.[7]

Users can also export a GEDCOM of their family tree from Geni.

[edit] Revenue model

Geni is not presently earning revenue. The company plans to make money by targeting advertising to users based on the demographic information they provide. It is considering charging for a premium subscription service.[4]

[edit] Similar companies

There's a class of Family2.0 social networking sites that include genealogy capabilities. These sites include Famiva, Amiglia and MyHeritage.[8]

Computer software company The Generations Network, maker of popular software title Family Tree Maker, has operated a paid genealogy subscription site and web portal since 1998 under brands MyFamily.com, Ancestry.com, Rootsweb.com and FamilyHistory.com. Geni.com, and WebBiographies, by contrast, are free.

Geni is to some extent modeled after social networking site LinkedIn, a popular site for business-related social networking.[4]

After Geni's launch, several (mostly international) companies have appeared trying to copy its product and business model. For example, the German website Verwandt.de makes unauthorized usage of the Geni flash application, and copies the family networking aspect of Geni in its entirety.[9] [10]

The Danish Web 2.0 company jointhefamily.net has similarities with Geni.com, but does not focus upon genealogy but upon building global, vivid networks like myspace or facebook with family relations alone connecting people.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Arrington, Michael (2007-01-12). PayPal, Pulp Fiction and Geni. TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
  2. ^ Geni.com launches venture backed family tree site. SocialTech.com (2007-01-16). Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
  3. ^ Geni: 5 million Profiles In 5 Months. TechCrunch (2007-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
  4. ^ a b c d Marshall, Matt (2007-01-16). Geni aims to build family tree for whole world. Venture Beat. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
  5. ^ Arrington, Michael (2007-03-05). $100 Million Valuation For Geni. TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
  6. ^ Butler, Phil (2007-01-17). Geni - Links in A Bottle. profy.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
  7. ^ Eastman, Dick (2008-05-12). Geni Adds GEDCOM Import. Eastman's_Online_Genealogy_Newsletter. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  8. ^ Social Networking - Family & Genealogy 2.0 Web Sites. about.com (2008-04-09). Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
  9. ^ Verwandt.de: German Geni Clone. techcrunch.com (2007-08-07). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  10. ^ Elance bid for verwandt.de. elance.com (2007-03-15). Retrieved on 2007-11-30.

[edit] External links