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The following post is by John Sumser as part of the 2006 recruiting blog swap.
(August 01, 2006) We must have ESP. This week's launch of the over fifty site, Eons follows nicely on the release of our white paper: Boomers To Bust Age Bias.. Those guys are so
smart. And, they have great timing!
Will lightning strike twice?
That's the bet that 75 employees and a number of venture capital firms are making on Jeff Taylor's new project, Eons. Although the site actually does have a jobs page, Taylor is prone to describing the project as a portal for the over-50 crowd.
The fledgling company recently announced their partners: Harrah's Entertainment, Hyatt Corp., Humana, Inc., Liberty Mutual Group and Verizon Wireless. Eons plans to work with their partners to create customized products and services for the 50-and-older set such as special insurance packages and travel opportunities. Sounds like a cooler version of AARP. (Luxist)
The site is about the celebration of turning 50 and the reachable goal of being 100," said Jeff Taylor, founder and chief executive officer of Eons Inc., who also founded jobs site Monster.com in 1994. "Our focus is to inspire a generation of baby-boomers and senior citizens to live their biggest life possible. Eons.com has been online in partial form, but on Monday all of its features will go live. The site's information and services will focus on four key areas: health, finances, entertainment and family. It will have a very targeted social-networking component to introduce visitors to others with similar interests, hobbies and life experiences", Taylor said. (WebWereld)
Marketplace (NPR) ran a small piece on the launch of Eons:
SCOTT JAGOW: The social networking site, MySpace, has hooked millions of young people in this country. But what about older folks? They wanna socialize too, and so today the founder of Monster.com launches a new site targeting baby boomers. More now from Amy Scott.
AMY SCOTT: The new site may have a couple things working against it. There's the name: Eons.com.
Marketing consultant Chuck Underwood says boomers don't like to think about age.
CHUCK UNDERWOOD: Eons has that kind of aging overtone to it that is so often a deal-breaker with the baby boomers. Studies also show that boomers use the Internet to shop or do research, but they socialize elsewhere.
On the other hand, Underwood says more boomers are single in their later years than any generation before them. So they may be keen to connect with their peers.
If Eons succeeds in attracting them, marketer Brent Green says advertisers will take note.
BRENT GREEN: If you could go to a Web site and ostensibly reach 10 million people between 50 and 60, to just make up some numbers, wow. Aging boomers have an estimated $2 trillion in the bank and, Green says, they like to spend it.
Taylor and the Eons crew live in a rarified atmosphere. Well insulated from nay-sayers and critics, the team is a partial recreation of the original Monster crowd. Working for Taylor is, in itself, a small industry.
We are sure that they are barking up the right tree. The over fifty demographic, while not really the monolithic gold mine you'd think, is a market changing phenomenon. When Taylor says:
"The 50+ generation has a unique blend of experiences, needs and desires," explains Taylor. "With greater health, more wealth and a mindset that the world is your oyster, this age group has an exceptional opportunity to live life to the fullest. Eons aims to capture this growing momentum and propel boomers and seniors toward achieving their goals by creating customized products and services in tandem with our corporate founding partners. We know these partnerships will create new spirit and innovation around this marketplace." (Press Release)
He means "we don't exactly have a product yet and we're going to build traffic while figuring out how to monetize it."
We've seen it happen. Salary.com, built well outside of typical venture financing, went for traffic first and monetization second. It can work.
The question is whether or not a successful B2B marketing team can learn to deliver consumer products. We'll keep you posted.
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I agree. The name of the site is exceptionally offensive. Additionally, all of the features seem to indicate the only thing that was kept in [blind] eye in creating this space was the prospect of very deep pockets -- belonging to the old folks.
How [chronologically] old is Jeff? 25? 28? 30 and regressing?
Well, I wish him and his team much success as they live life in their vacuum. Hopefully, it will remain a vacuum so that more like them don't slip out into the external world. Lord knows, we have more than enough of 'em out here as it is!
Yvonne LaRose, Aug 5, 2006 10:25:44 AM
Just wanted to put my 2 cents in. I understand you crediting Jeff Taylor for being innovative and revolutionizing the online recruiting world with monster.com. However, when it comes to the senior space, I want to introduce you to a former coworker and semi retired Art Koff who has owned and operated retiredbrains.com long before eons.com existed. Can you show him a little credit and do your research?
I have know him since the days we worked for a small Chicago company called HR Sites International in 1997. We created amazing web-based recruiting tools. These tools include one of the first automated job posting tools, job referral systems, algorithmic candidate ranking tools and careers centers. We did it all during the dotcom boom and crash.
Later our company was bought by Resumix, which became Webhire and is now owned by Kenexa. My former coworkers (all 3 of them - 2 of us have moved on - one who was the mastermind behind all of this) continue doing wonderful work for them.
That means a startup from the dotcom bust in 2001 essentially got bought twice as a key ingrdient of two former companies.
Point is give credit where credit is due. Art has been out there every day as a senior working on his site for several years now.
david , Aug 6, 2006 9:00:34 AM
An excellent example of how to address this demographic the right way: www.growingbolder.com
Michael, Oct 10, 2006 6:40:05 AM
Great Site - really useful information!d
Helga, May 31, 2007 7:04:51 PM
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Hillary, Jun 1, 2007 12:57:53 PM
I enjoy your site very much! THANK YOUs
Helga, Jun 2, 2007 12:12:38 AM
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Helga, Jun 2, 2007 1:08:07 PM
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