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Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology

'Caregiver' sites launch as boomers seek help with elders

by Christopher Calnan Mass High Tech
Friday, January 4, 2008

Websites focused on caregivers -- from nannies to those taking care of elderly parents -- burst on the scene in the late 1990s, then fizzled out quickly among the many dot-coms with faulty business plans.

But in the past six months, three Boston-area companies have launched websites focused on that same online audience, and this time they're faced with a new challenge: attracting users who don't identify themselves as "caregivers."

About 34 million adults in the U.S., or 16 percent of the population, provide care to people 50 or older. The average caregiver age is 47. And about 8.9 million caregivers look after someone at least 50 years old with dementia, according to the San Francisco-based Family Caregivers Alliance.

But most caregivers view themselves as babysitters, elder-care providers, even dutiful family members -- rather than members of a community called "caregivers." So when they search online for resources, the terms they use are more often disease-specific or task-related, bypassing the newly launching online networks targeting them.

Operators of the latest websites are betting on wider adoption of web-based tools compared with the Internet users of a decade ago to help drive awareness of their offerings.

The aging population, diverse audience and resurgence of web-based communities have created a fragmented market, with plenty of new online players trying to gain traction, said Gail Hunt, president of the Maryland-based National Alliance for Caregiving.

"All of a sudden, it's like caregivers have money," she said. "The baby boomers have to care for their parents, and there's money to be made."

And that's why most of the recently launched websites aimed at consumers caring for their parents and aging relatives aren't exactly altruistic, says Paul Kleyman, spokesman for the American Society on Aging. "What's driving it, of course, is interest in advertisers trying to reach the baby boomers," he said.

Newton-based CareGiverHelper Inc. beta-tested its website, CareGiverHelper.com, with 100 users during September and October after looking for a way to coordinate information about the founder's mother's affairs following his father's death 18 months ago.

At CareGiverHelper, CEO Steve Dworkin founded his company in 2005. "It came from a need I had with my family'" he said.

CareGiverHelper generates revenue from advertisements on user websites and branded websites and from corporate sponsorships, said Dworkin, who also operates BatteryCorp Inc., a commercial battery supplier.

Such dot-coms proliferated during the late 1990s, only to disappear a couple of years later because of weak business plans, she said. "They exploded, and all went away," Hunt said.

This time, she said, websites need to develop comprehensive information combined with a database of local resources for users.

"That's the Holy Grail," Hunt said. "What's available for my mother in Duluth?"