Recently I met a woman who owns a dog spa. She said Americans spent $35 billion last year on their 73 million dogs and 90 million cats.
I thought of these stats last night, when my neighbor told me his puppy is on Dogster. I looked him up, and, while at it, posted my cat Sara on Catster. Although I'm a fan of dog and cat pictures, the site feels incomplete, even with its ~240K pet profiles. Maybe it's because I see so much untapped potential.
1. In the "favorite foods" and "favorite toys" sections of pet profiles, some owners go through the trouble of listing specific brands and flavors. It seems Dogster does nothing with this data, other than displaying the text. What a waste of market research - not to mention sponsorship opportunities! Purina would surely be pleased to have all references to Mighty Dog linked to a product page, where it's shown to be the leading brand among brown labs.
2. Another missed opportunities is medical conditions. Sara has asthma; I would love to commiserate with people whose cats are similarly afflicted. And I think there would be no shortage of vendors willing to sponsor an information center featuring treatment options.
3. Speaking of medicine, might a pet address book/calendar make the site stickier? I can't remember when Sara last went for a check-up; I think it'd be neat to have a central repository of pet-related info. In addition to vet appointments and medical records, maybe owners could also use this feature to keep track of play dates, pet-sitters, etc.
4. Dogster sells premium memberships for ad-free pet photo viewing. Maybe it could also offer paid profiles to vendors? Pet owners could become "friends" with local vets and dog walkers, for instance. This would provide the added benefit of allowing prospective customers to ask for feedback.
5. Another premium membership possibility is to imitate Squidoo. Give pet owners a portion of ad revenues generated through their profiles, and/or allow them to set up Amazon and Cafe Press affiliate program links. The monetary incentive might encourage users to promote their profiles, and keep content up to date.
6. And what about a Google Maps mashup - sponsored by a Petsmart near you - where users can see how many brown tabby cats or white Poodles live in their neighborhood? Some sort of eVite/Meetup functionality might be cool also. Some owners might like to meet the 78 other Gray Hounds in their zip code?
Ok - I'm just rambling. And Dogster is already profitable. Has been for about a year, I think. But theirs is a $35 billion/year market, with sooo many revenue generating opportunities they could take advantage of...
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