I've started working at Geni.com and am trying to figure out the applicability of Geni to the APAC market. Does the idea work everywhere in the world or only in certain areas? In the US where extended families aren't as tight, there's the "discovery" element of finding long lost relatives. Will this work in Asia where many of the cultures are centered around the family?
I came from PayPal. eBay had a bit of this problem. In the US, eBay's network started off through the avid searchers of collectibles. However, in China, the users are much more pragmatic, searching for "new, in-season" items instead, so a lot of the excitement and "thrill of discovery" doesn't exist.
1 comment:
Hi Alan,
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog.
The user experience with Geni has been one of my best so far. Despite the technical hiccups when I used it (during launch), it was easy enough to understand and use right from the start.
3 months on, I haven't gone back to use it again, nor has my tree expanded. Truth be told, I didn't put in enough effort to gather email addresses of my relatives, especially my cousins who I assume would be able to grasp the concept faster and work harder towards building our family tree.
With regards to the "thrill of discovery", I believe something like Geni can still offer that for the Asian, or at least the South East Asian market. Being a second generation Indian born in Malaysia, I am intrigued by the prospects of locating my extended family in India. Likewise, I would assume the same thrill factor would exist for those of a Chinese lineage in Singapore, Indonesia, etc.
One thought I've had on spurring some interest would be to add a mobile/sms component to inspire my family members. The mobile/sms penetration in Malaysia is much higher than Internet/email. At last check the figure stands at about 80% vs 6%. In most cases, you're likely to have your relatives mobile number as compared to an email address.
Hope this helps! And all the best with your endeavours at Geni!
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