Eons: Now You Just Have To FEEL Old To Join
When Jeff Taylor launched old-people social network Eons in August 2006, he couldn’t use the site. That’s because the minimum age was 50, and he was just 45.
That was the first warning sign that this thing was headed to the deadpool.
Our initial review of the site was a thumbs down. Not only is it ridiculous that the founder and visionary for the service couldn’t actually use it, we found it to be poorly organized. It included depressing features like an obituary section (that must be fun to read every day when you log in). In short, we said it embraced all of the hype of social networking, but none of the spirit.
It took about a year for the company to start laying off staff. No surprise there - Comscore has measured the slow decline of the company from mediocrity to downright desolation. They went from a high of 1.2 million worldwide visitors in May 2007 to just 400,000 last month. Incredibly, they’ve raised $32 million in capital from first tier VCs to get those 400k visitors.
From today on, however, Taylor can start to use his site. They’ve removed the minimum age requirement and now anyone can join the site. No longer to you have to be 50 or older to join the site. They’re still focusing on the older generation, though. Taylor says “It’s the attitude and energy of our generation that defines us — our collective BOOM!” The minimum age is now 13.
The change is reminiscent of Facebook’s move to allow non-students to join the network in late 2006. Except that it isn’t going to work.
Eons as a business plan was likely brilliant. Lots and lots of baby boomers are nearing retirement age. They’re online and they have a lot of free time, but they don’t want to hang out at MySpace and Facebook. So Eons builds them a social network they can call their own.
The problem is that these people have better things to do than make countless numbers of anonymous online friends, and then poke them and flirt with them. And if they are going to do all of that, they’ll probably have more fun hitting on the youngsters at the real social networks. My guess is that Facebook has more members over 50 than Eons does.
By the way, the comments to Taylor’s announcement are classic. Users are not happy that teenagers might be invading Eons. Happypaint says “But have you read some of the stuff that comes out of those kids mouths? Where are their parents? They must not give a hoot. I for 1 do not wish to deal with it.” Another user is complaining that his comment was deleted and says “You’ve perpetrated a classic “bait and switch” scheme on all of us baby boomers … your dishonesty is disgusting.”
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Apparently Old People Aren’t Dying To Use Eons
The take up of social networking services among over 50’s would appear to be not booming at nearly the same level as the birthrate of the United States in the 50’s and 60’s, with news that Eons has shed 24 staff members.
According to a report on Xconomy, Eons founder Jeff Taylor “called together his remaining staff and engaged in a moment of remembrance for the 24 colleagues he had just laid off…in a dramatic, sobering, but ultimately healthy and air-clearing scene.”
Eons launched in August 2006 with a over 50’s focused social network that included an obituary feature which Michael Arrington reported as seeming “both gimmicky and somewhat distasteful.” The Obituary section includes notable deaths and additional features like deaths near your location “all tastefully wrapped in funeral home, medicare and netflix (?) advertising.”
The sector is far more crowded then when Eons launched, with sites such as BOOMj and others attempting to deliver are more friendly version of MySpace and Facebook to seniors.
It was reported that another dozen Eons staff members “found different opportunities and chose this time to move on,†bringing the total number of staff lost to 36. Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst, who have invested $32 million in Eons over two rounds, are said to have demanded the restructure.
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