this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
513 points (99.2% liked)
Technology
67825 readers
8242 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
No returning customers, due to the nature of the business. It's dead from the start.
I'm not sure what would make you think the "customers" for an enormous DNA database were the people providing the DNA.
Those people were just paying to be the product.
people get born every day
I don't. It's only happened to me once.
A person is born every day.
You are not born every day.
Seems clear that you must not be a person.
It happened to me yesterday and now I hear it only happens once?
Smh my head.
Currying won’t save you
Right, but the data you get from that test is pretty broad. One test will create a background for an entire family. You only need to do one for one child. Or if both parents have one, or a sibling of both parents have done one, the children of that pair also no longer needs a test to see their background.
It's not just about background though. Could also filter the results for genetic markers of medical conditions, something that may differ between individuals.
People that would presumably already know their lineage since their parents already took the test.
true but after the enormous initial boom they would have reached an equilibrium of a small trickle. the question is if that small trickle is enough to sustain a company on its own, so apparently not.
It can't be just that, right? There are loads of successful products that any given person only ever buys once.
Sure, list five
That's easy! 1: Coffin 2: Headstone 3: septic tank 4: bad parachute 5: cemetery plot
There's, uh, a bit of a theme with these though.
everyone is guaranteed to buy death/funeral related stuff, not everyone wants a DNA test. Also all of that crap (headstone, funeral service, coffin etc) is bundeled together in a massive payday, not to mention funeral places tend to price gouge the bereaved. So a single death is a much bigger payday than a single DNA test.
As for the other products you mentioned, i doubt any of those companies literally only sell those individual products. They probably diversify to other products and services too.
Come on. Any "buy it for life" product will fall in that category. Safety razor for example.
Companies that sell safety razors (or whatever buy-once product) probably also do lots of other stuff to diversify.
Ah, you mean the original "razor and blades" business model that ensures repeat customers.
(Yes, I'm aware that many people who use safety razors these days are not necessarily buying from brands that make both the razor and the blades, I am such a person myself, I'm somewhat joking on that)
But even in the realm of "buy it for life" items, you can still end up with repeat customers. Maybe you want a second razor for your travel toiletry bag, or to keep in your second bathroom. Maybe you just see one that looks cooler, or the handle is more ergonomic, or the way you change the blade seems more convenient.
And BIFL items still do sometimes get lost, stolen, given away, thrown out, or sometimes even broken and need to be replaced.
And unless the world's population starts shrinking, there will always be new shavers hitting puberty who will eventually need their own razor.
With a DNA test, unless you're questioning paternity or testing for specific genetic traits like cancer risk and such, once your parents have taken a test, you and your siblings don't really need to, you know what your parents are so you know what you are.
A headstone, grave, urn, wedding dress, and any outfit used in a religious ceremony.
I know several people that have bought more than one wedding dress.
Exactly this