The mystery of the older crowd

As a start up, you have endless hurdles to cross, but I feel there is one hurdle that eSnips were spared:  An initial user base consisting of the valley's techies and early adopters which is often very problematic as discussed extensively these days for example  here, here and here. 

Being located as far as possible from the valley has advantages for a change, because early adopters and techies have not heard of esnips when we launched in back in September, so eSnips enjoys being among the few services who are mostly used by everyday people and even more interestingly by an older, user base. Actually 85% of eSnips users are above 20.  (I listed further down examples of how they use eSnips).

When I say “older” I mean out of their teenage years and out of college.  People with families, careers, jobs, and friends, eople who have less free time and more tasks to fit into it.  People who have passions, but just can’t muster the commitment to write daily updates about them in blogs, people who are not obsessed with being 'cool'.

When I tried to understand what is it about eSnips that attracts this mainstream audience, I came up with a few possible theories:

• Writing is not for everyone:  Just like in real life - while most of us have interests and passions, only a relatively small percent of us have the talent and will to write it. Most of us just collect or have stuff to share about our interests. It's easier to share stuff related to your interests than write about your interests – especially if you have to keep writing about it and updating on an ongoing basis. 
• Writing is not for everything:  many users simply want to showcase their work, their collections, writing is only a way to put their work in context. 
• Files is a familiar concept:  People work with files on their computers. They are more familiar and comfortable with files than with html or html editors.
• Mainstreamers are graduate publishers  -  eSnips doesn't require you to publish immediately. You can start using eSnips just to share with a small group or even just to store your stuff. When you're more comfortable you start sharing.
• Grown ups are not obsessed with 'fitting in':  When you are in your teens, still obsessed with your persona and 'fitting in' if you are single or have time meeting people may be your primary goal. Mainstream, older people are often more centered around their interest, and meeting people who share their interest is great, but not the primary goal.
• They prefer convenience of functionality:   The older audience doesn’t want the technical hassle surrounding web publishing.  It needs to be easy and fast.  If it’s too time-consuming, they won’t do it.  eSnips’ ease-of-use makes ideal for their publishing needs.

So what do our users do on eSnips?  Here are some examples: 

Peter, 47 from Finland draws amazing oil paintings - http://esnips.com/web/peterabbottArt   and sings:  http://esnips.com/web/finnpeters-songs . Keli, 23 from CA is a fasion designer she shares her sketches on eSnips:  http://esnips.com/web/kelicatalano, Taz from Canada shares Duets with friends  http://esnips.com/web/tazhomepageduets .  John likes to sing karaoke http://www.esnips.com/web/tazhomepage, he invited his friend, Rocknoy, 59 from KT and now Rodknoy shares his karaoke songs  http://www.esnips.com/web/mesingin .  Stu, 27, UK has the best collections of funny stuff:  http://www.esnips.com/web/stu2you2003sPhotos.  Scott, 25, Los Angeles is an amazing photographer:  http://www.esnips.com/web/stu2you2003sPhotos .
Caroline from the Netherlands shares videos of the little beautiful things we often overlook http://www.esnips.com/web/CarolinesVideos  .OrlandoFlyBoy from Canada shares clips of Eagles nesting in Canada:  http://esnips.com/web/EaglesLiveCam . And on cruelty to animals http://www.esnips.com/web/HEYALLTHATDIDNTFINDTHEANIMALCRUELTYVIDEO
Tuhil designs beautiful saris: http://esnips.com/web/TuhilMarch2006 

And I could go on and on because I find it simply fascinating. What I specifically like about it is looking into the profiles and finding other eSnips sites by them. It's really neat to see other facets of the same person. Some people have many folders related to the same topic, while others are totally diverse. 

That's what interests me, and I have no doubt it represents a larger portion of the population who have grown out of the need to be 'in', 'cool' and constantly obsessed with who they are.

So, what do you think?  Any other ideas of why eSnips attracts the older audience?  We love this crowd, and I think that giving by providing them with the right platform, we can get some truly amazing content online.

Comments

[rochester92]

I can only speak from personal experience, but I think your mix of tools and GUI is far superior to anything else available today (beta or not). I love the FF web toolbar. I love the ability to post information in a blog-like format, being able to share with the world, and most of all, it always works!!!

[YaelElish]

Hi there and thanks! Getting a comment like yours at 10pm, just before leaving for home is the the best way to end the day. Your ongoing feedback is very welcome.

[Suzy]

I started using eSnips last fall shortly after it was introduced as a way to share business content - videos, photos and documents - with colleagues on a project. I have seen eSnips evolve over the months. I'm one of the "older crowd". I still use it for just business, but I love it because it's easy to use and easy for my collegaues to access. (I learned about it through Google).

[Antonio]

Esnips is great. I agree, it's something unique all over the web. I use to plan my trips by getting information from several sources and sharing it with my travelmates.
What's missing?
1) Localization: I would love an Italian version of it
2) Possibility to create subfolders