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MySpace for baby boomers

A new site called Eons.com helps seniors make contact with other seniors. Will the technology catch on with the boomers? Amy Scott reports.

TEXT OF STORY

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.

In New York, I’m Amy Scott for Marketplace.

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