Why Classmates.com Has 18 Months to Live
We’ve all seen the ads for the site, and they offer good services to help class reunions go off easier, but classmates.com (owned by United Online, which has an office in Orem) is failing its users in classic web 1.0 fashion: You gotta pay to play.
I believe they are MASSIVELY missing out on the chance to be a HUGE social network. All because they are working too hard to make a few bucks.
The service is good, it’s massive user-base is great, and their UI ain’t half-bad either. But, they are going to die in the web 2.0 world of user-centricity if they don’t make some changes:
- Release Me!
The site teases you with just the bare facts… or even less than that. You have to pay to know the smallest amounts about a person. They even ban your profile if you try and share information about yourself that (gasp!) might allow an unpaying member to track you down through some mysterious internet tool.The fact is, even LinkedIn, which I blasted last year for strangling my personal information, is more open with information than Classmates! - Stop Selling Me!
Worse than that, while I am getting underwhelmed with the information I want (to get connected to colleagues and classmates), I am getting overloaded with information I don’t want (ads, banners, and “punch the monkey” sales gimmicks.)If I wasn’t being asked to pay $5/mo (seems quite high for data YOU didn’t create, you just aggregated) everytime I click anything, I wouldn’t mind the ads. But pick one side of the fence or the other!If I wanted an ad-laden, bogged down social network, I would go to mySpace! The last thing I need is another one!
At the end of the day, here’s the math in simple terms:
- Let users have more information for free and more users will stay (and return) to your site.
- More users = more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com.
- Let users create and share more information for free and more users will stay (and return) to your site.
- More users = more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com.
- Retain some powerful tools for paying members, and more will join.
- More paying users = more revenue and more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com
- More paying users = more free users as well (since they will tell their friends) = more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com.
- Drop your price to $1/month without the gimmicky annual pricing tricks and I bet your paying user base will grow 10x overnight without any additional advertising expense.
- 10x growth at 1/5 price = 200% revenue growth.
- More paying users = more revenue and more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com
- More paying users = more free users as well (since they will tell their friends) = more clicks on ads = more $$ for classmates.com.
Hey, you don’t have to do this. Stay old, stay slow, and stay restrictive. No problem. Natural Selection will take over sooner or later.
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3 comments for “Why Classmates.com Has 18 Months to Live”
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You’re right on, Robert.
When we did our 15 year class reunion, we used Classmates.com and recommended that people sign up on it. Want to know how many people have been willing to shell out the bucks to find me using it?
One.
Want to know how many people have found me using Google?
Seven.
Sadly, they are the best in the business and they are going to die a slow death if they don’t learn how the Internet works.
Thanks for the note, Laura–I hope they realize something before it’s too late.
Who knew that Google would challenge them!!? (Who knew that Google would also become the best job-board, too!)
I’m afraid they found something that worked (in dot-com 1.0) and they’re hanging on to it for dear life right now, squeezing every penny out of it.
Truth is, I know more mature, less “internet-savvy” users than I are paying for it, and they think it’s heaven on earth. Pretty soon, though, there one of the other category killers in the wings will just sweep them all off their feet.
It’s hard to watch a train-wreck in progress…
Well you’ve missed it massively on this one. When classmates was started, it realized two things: first that the information and facilitation it provided has value, second they are a business. Just as people pay to be on mac.com, classmates has a business model that works while facebook and myspace still suck millions of $ out of their parent companies/partners. That is not a sustainable business model. Every time the later two have tried to move to a ad model, their customers have screamed. The goal isn’t just to be big, its to be profitable. This is a business, not a hobby. Servers, developers, networking, staff - those things aren’t free. Sites that can’t cover their costs are not long for this world.