760,000 Subscribers

The 2007 media kit says Ancestry has 760,000 subscribers [Warning: this link is a PDF download].

760,000
x $150 (per subscriber, and that is being conservative)
$114,000,000 Gross

Just how much does it really cost to operate TGN. They use volunteers for much of the routine work. Does anyone know how many people are employed by them? What kind of servers do they use and how many do they have?

Even if Ancestry spent $900,000 on RootsWeb maintenance, they still have $113,000,000 to play with. Someone is making a killing.

And that was before they stole the Internet.

Want to bring back FREE genealogy. Use Google groups or Yahoo groups. Google offers free web space, photo albums and much, much more. Yep, they do cache web pages, but they never claim the sites as their own. And they never try to charge for them. Their motto is “Do no evil.”

I think someone at TGN overestimated the value of online genealogy and the little cadre of MBAs have been busting their butts to figure out a way to make a bigger profit ever since. It began with trying to charge $20 for email addresses, and when that didn't work out so well, they turned to harvesting everyone else's work – copyright be damned – and charging $13 to view websites that are already FREE.

Compare that to Google's philosophy.

BTW, the state of California has declared that the Internet Archive is a Library. How much do you want to bet that TGN/Ancestry will be petitioning Utah to do the same for them?

Take a look at TGN's Board below. Check out the links. And the unlinked!

Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tim Sullivan is the president and chief executive officer of The Generations Network. He is responsible for the direction, overall financial performance and all operational functions of The Generations Network, the leading online network connecting families, present and past. Sullivan most recently was chief executive officer for Match.com, the global leader in online dating and an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp. Under Sullivan's leadership, Match.com achieved recognition as the clear leader in the U.S. online dating market, while expanding globally into 29 local language dating markets. During this period, the paid subscriber base for all IAC Personals brands grew from 189,500 in Q1 2001 to nearly one million in Q2 2004, while growing revenue more than six- fold.

Prior to joining Match.com, Sullivan served as vice president of e-commerce for Ticketmaster's predecessor, Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, Inc. Before joining Ticketmaster, Sullivan spent seven years at The Walt Disney Company, where as vice president and managing director for Buena Vista Home Entertainment Asia Pacific, he was responsible for all Home Video distribution of Walt Disney company products in the Asia Pacific Region. Sullivan is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

David H. Rinn, Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, David is responsible for corporate accounting, financial systems, reporting, budgeting and financial planning, audit, tax, M&A activity, and funding relationships. David comes to The Generations Network after more than eleven years at Microsoft Corporation, where he was most recently CFO of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Business Group. Previous roles at Microsoft included general manager of Finance and Administration, CFO of HomeAdvisor Technologies, senior director of Product Group Finance, and senior director of business development and investments. Earlier in his career, David worked in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. David holds an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and a BA in Geology from Vassar College in New York.

Daren Thayne, Chief Technology Officer

Daren Thayne serves as chief technology officer. He is responsible for overall management and direction of the company's applications development and IT organization. Daren brings with him more than ten years of experience in product development. Prior to accepting his current position at The Generations Network, Daren served as director of development at Open Market, Inc., where he managed the overall development of their Web-based publishing products. Daren also served as director of development for Corel USA Corp. and held the same position at Novell, Inc. Daren received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from Brigham Young University.

Michael Graff, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MyFamily.com

As senior vice president and general manager of The Generations Network, Michael’s responsibilities include defining, building and implementing long-term strategic product plans. Michael manages product design, user experience and coordinating the product management process with the company’s development, marketing, international, content and community teams. Previously, Michael was general manager of Microsoft's Windows Mobile Applications & Services division. While at Microsoft, Michael led the MapPoint Business Unit and held many product management related positions including the Group Product Manager for Microsoft Office. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the University of Idaho.

Andrew Wait, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Family History

Andrew Wait is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Family History at MyFamily.com, Inc., and is responsible for planning and directing all aspects of the company’s products, marketing and operations.

As Senior Director of Marketing at Kodak Gallery, Mr. Wait generated over 70% growth in customer acquisition.Prior to joining Kodak Gallery, Mr. Wait was the Senior Director of Marketing for EarthLink's PeoplePC Brand, where he was responsible for customer acquisition, retention and brand development.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Wait held various executive marketing positions with Pacific Bell/SBC, Bank of America and Hilton Hotels Corporation. Mr. Wait holds a Masters of International Business Administration from St. Mary's College of California and a B.A. in History from University of California at Berkeley.

Josh Hanna, Managing Director, Ancestry Europe and Australia

Josh Hanna is Managing Director and Vice President for Ancestry Europe, responsible for the company’s international expansion throughout Europe, and also in Australia. Josh joined Ancestry in 2001 through its Genealogy.com division and has held various product marketing and content acquisition positions before opening its London office in 2005.

Prior to joining the family history category, Josh served in several marketing and business development roles with loyalty marketing firms Netcentrics and Cyrk dating back to 1992.

Family history is not just a job for him. Josh counts family history research as a hobby and has traced his own roots back to the 1700’s discovering Irish, Scottish and Ukrainian links along the way. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College where he earned his Bachelors Degree with High Honours in History.