FamilyLink.com, Inc. builds the family graph with more than 50 million relationships
PROVO, UT, October 20, 2008 — In less than one year, FamilyLink.com, Inc.’s Facebook application, We’re Related, has been downloaded by more than 10 million users.
“When we first started We’re Related, some developers told us that people won’t use Facebook to connect with their family members. They said that Facebook’s target market was not families, and that the app would not survive,” said Jason McGowan, director, Social Networking, FamilyLink.com, Inc. “We have proven just the opposite by having an application that is ranked No. 9 in ‘most monthly active users’ on Facebook. People do want to connect online with their families, and now they have an easy way to do it.”
The We’re Related application allows individuals to find relatives on Facebook, share photos with their friends and families, and also collaboratively build family trees with family members on Facebook. Using We’re Related, individuals have the ability to define which Facebook users are their relatives.
Since the application was launched October 2007, more than 50 million relationships (of living people) have been defined on We’re Related. The most common relationship, by far, is “cousin, or cuz, or first cousin, or my cousin” (8.6 million). However, there have also been some funny relationships defined as well. For example, 1,925 people have been defined as “lover,” 4, 244 people have defined as “wifeys,” 2,683 people have been defined as “4th cousins,” 1,404 people have defined as “soul sisters,” 35 people have been defined as “doggy granddog,” and 35 people have been defined as “dog-n-law.”
“The Facebook platform has provided the opportunity for millions of connections to be made that may not have been possible otherwise. This fact is key to our success, because our goal is to connect individuals,” said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc.
We’re Related has its largest audiences in the United States, Canada, and the UK. It has users from a total of 232 countries/territories and from all 50 states. Within the past 30 days, the application has had 6.5 million monthly active users and 450,000 daily active users. We’re Related has been the fastest growing application in the past few weeks, jumping from No. 23 to No. 9 (based on monthly active users).
McGowan feels that having this large number of defined relationships, with the resultant heavy flow of traffic, puts FamilyLink.com well on its way to “graphing the social family graph.”
“We have been able to leverage the social graph on Facebook, and other social networks, to build the family graph and make it easy to find and connect with relatives,” McGowan said.
Along with the 10 million current users, advertisers also greatly benefit from the We’re Related application.
“The staggering growth of the We’re Related application and the targeted advertising capabilities that growth has created provide an unprecedented opportunity for advertisers to easily reach millions of people who are connecting with family and strengthening those relationships,” said Nathan Gwilliam, Chief Revenue Officer, FamilyLink.com, Inc.
We’re Related can be downloaded at: http://apps.facebook.com/we_r_related
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Media Contact
Whitney Ransom McGowan
Corporate Communications Director
FamilyLink.com, Inc.
http://www.worldvitalrecords.com
whitney@familylink.com
About FamilyLink.com, Inc.
FamilyLink.com, Inc. is a family of services that includes WorldVitalRecords.com, FamilyHistoryLink.com, WebTree.com, and the We’re Related and My Family applications on Facebook. The focus of the company is to provide innovative tools to connect families. FamilyLink.com, Inc. has 7 million unique global visitors each month and 30.4 million page views per month. We’re Related is one of the fastest-growing social networks for genealogists that allows individuals to find relatives on Facebook, connect with friends and family members, build family trees, and share news and photos. We’re Related has found success using Uservoice, an online forum for users, to determine new features that should be added to the site. My Family is a great way for people to express themselves and to share interesting characteristics about their family with those they connect with on social platforms.
