Wednesday, February 17, 2016

DNA On Fire AncestryDNA 4th Quarter 2015 Report


The Fourth Quarter, and 2015 full year report, at AncestryDNA emphasized the importance of the DNA product. This product has resulted in an increase in Ancestry subscriptions, which is Ancestry's core product. The 1 million new testers in 2015 helped increase subscriptions from 2,115,000  in the year ending December 2014, to the 2,264,000 in the year ending Dec 2015. An increase of  149,000. The subscribers who came to Ancestry through the DNA product are more engaged, and tend to subscribe to more expensive packages. They also tend to renew their subscriptions, according to Ancestry.

AncestryDNA now has 1.5 million testers in their database. The reason we are not seeing more tools like, a chromosome browser, is because sales are "on fire" according to one Ancestry Official. Black Friday 2015 sales were up 200% over last year. AncestryDNA has a lower profit margin than subscriptions, so as long as sales are brisk we won't be seeing new tools which would cost money to add.

The Ancestry Executives were also asked if the new medical focus has resulted in more hacking attempts? One Executive said he didn't want to divulge that information. Interesting at that point in the conference call the line suddenly went dead. I thought, were they hacked lol?

One Executive said a show Ancestry is sponsoring will likely increase DNA sales. Long Lost Family which will premiere its second season on TLC  March 6, 2016 will be sponsored by Ancestry. Sounds like it's based on a British show.

The sentiment regarding the DNA product's 2015 sales, and the current 2016 sales, has led these CEO's to forecast continued fiery sales of the DNA kits in 2016.

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